Orthopedic Care in Chevy Chase, Maryland

Chevy Chase is an unusually active community for one so close-in to Washington, DC. The seven incorporated municipalities and unincorporated neighborhoods that make up "Chevy Chase" — from the Town of Chevy Chase along Connecticut Avenue to Chevy Chase Village, Martin's Additions, Somerset, and Friendship Heights — share a culture of year-round outdoor activity. Tennis at the Edgemoor and Columbia clubs runs through the summer; golf at Chevy Chase Club and Columbia draws steady weekly play; and the running culture along the Capital Crescent Trail, Rock Creek Park, and the Brookville Road corridor produces a predictable stream of overuse injuries every spring as marathon training ramps up.

Maryland Orthopedic Specialists is approximately five minutes by car from the heart of Chevy Chase. Our Bethesda office at 6710-A Rockledge Drive — a short trip up Old Georgetown Road or Wisconsin Avenue from Friendship Heights — is the surgical home for Chevy Chase patients, offering full clinical capability: physician consultations, on-site X-ray and ultrasound, PRP and biologics, durable medical equipment, casting, and a fluoroscopy procedure room for image-guided injections. For post-operative and sports rehabilitation, our Rockville physical therapy facility at 1071 Seven Locks Road is roughly fifteen minutes away and is the dedicated rehab home for many Chevy Chase patients after surgery.

The injury profile from Chevy Chase reflects the demographics. We see a high volume of rotator cuff disease in midlife and older patients who have spent decades on the tennis court — both impingement and partial-thickness tears that respond well to non-surgical management when caught early, and full-thickness tears that often benefit from arthroscopic repair with biologic augmentation. We see tennis elbow and golfer's elbow regularly. We see hip and knee osteoarthritis in active patients who want to keep playing tennis, golf, and pickleball, and who are good candidates for joint preservation, regenerative therapies, or — when the time comes — modern partial or total replacement with rapid-recovery protocols. We see plantar fasciitis and Achilles tendinopathy in the morning-run crowd. And we see a consistent stream of student-athlete injuries from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, Walter Johnson, Stone Ridge, and the area's private schools.

What patients in Chevy Chase typically expect, and what we deliver, is friction-free access to subspecialty care. Most patients can be seen within 24 to 48 hours of calling, with same-day slots held specifically for acute injuries. Imaging is ordered and performed promptly — on-site X-ray and ultrasound are available at the Bethesda office, and MRI is scheduled through a network of imaging partners within walking distance. We communicate directly with concierge primary care practices in Chevy Chase, Friendship Heights, and DC's Northwest neighborhoods when patients prefer their internist to be looped in on findings and treatment decisions.

Dr. James Gardiner started his practice in Chevy Chase 30 years ago. He anchors the sports medicine team with Dr. Christopher Raffo and Dr. John Christoforetti. Together, the team handles the bulk of shoulder and knee sports medicine work for Chevy Chase patients — rotator cuff repair (with or without biologic augmentation like Regeneten), ACL reconstruction with quadriceps autograft, ACL reconstruction with patellar tendon (BPTB) autograft, meniscus repair, and arthroscopic shoulder stabilization with labral repair for shoulder instability and SLAP/Bankart labral tears. Midlife and older tennis, golf, and pickleball players from Columbia, Chevy Chase Club, and Edgemoor make up a substantial share of the rotator cuff caseload — both partial-thickness tears managed non-operatively and full-thickness tears repaired arthroscopically with biologic augmentation. Dr. Christoforetti's hip preservation practice — arthroscopic labral repair, FAI correction, and joint-preserving osteotomies — serves Chevy Chase patients with longstanding hip and groin pain that has been undiagnosed for years. For hand, wrist, and elbow injuries common in this community's tennis, golf, and desk-bound professional populations, Dr. Peter Fitzgibbons offers fellowship-trained upper-extremity care, including carpal tunnel, trigger finger, and thumb-base arthritis. Dr. Gary Feldman rounds out the team caring for foot and ankle problems in the area's running and walking community — plantar fasciitis, Achilles tendinopathy, bunions, and ankle instability.

Chevy Chase has been an MOS community for years. Whether the injury is a sudden fall, a slow-onset overuse problem, or a question of "is this worth seeing someone about?" — start with us.