Surgical Experience

One of the most common questions patients and families ask Dr. Merritt is, "How many of these surgeries have you done?" It's a great question — and one every patient should be asking any surgeon. Research shows that surgical experience is one of the strongest predictors of outcomes, and Dr. Merritt believes patients deserve a clear, honest answer.

So rather than just giving a number in the office, Dr. Merritt put it all here. Every number on this page comes directly from his billing records — no estimates, no rounding up. He has been in practice since 2013 and spent his early years doing both sports medicine and shoulder surgery alongside knee and hip. Around 2018, he made a deliberate decision to step away from shoulder surgery and focus exclusively on the knee and hip so he could go deeper in the areas he's most passionate about. Below is a full breakdown of where that experience stands today.

Dr. Merritt has performed 746 ACL reconstructions over his career and currently performs approximately 85–90 per year. The literature defines a high-volume ACL surgeon as one performing 35 or more reconstructions annually, with some worldwide surveys using a threshold of 50. His volume is roughly 2.5 times the high-volume threshold.

Dr. Merritt offers ACL reconstruction with hamstring, patellar tendon, or quadriceps tendon autograft, as well as the BEAR implant (Bridge-Enhanced ACL Restoration) for appropriate candidates. For high-risk patients, he routinely adds a lateral extra-articular tenodesis (LET), which has been shown to reduce re-tear risk by approximately 65%.

Dr. Merritt has performed over 1,929 knee replacement procedures, including total knee replacements (both robotic-assisted and conventional), partial (unicompartmental) knee replacements using the Medacta system he helped design, and patellofemoral joint replacements. Research defines a high-volume knee replacement surgeon as one performing more than 50 cases per year, with complications continuing to decrease up to 145 or more per year. He currently performs nearly 240 knee replacements annually.

Dr. Merritt has performed over 830 total hip replacements, all through the anterior approach exclusively. Research identifies a high-volume hip replacement surgeon as one performing 30 or more cases per year, with a 2025 study showing high-volume surgeons have significantly lower infection rates (0.5% vs 1.0%) and lower dislocation risk. He performs approximately 80 hip replacements annually.

Dr. Merritt has performed over 1,660 meniscus procedures, including both standalone meniscus cases and those performed alongside ACL reconstruction. This includes partial meniscectomy, meniscus repair, meniscus root repair, and meniscal transplant.

Cartilage damage in the knee is one of the most challenging problems in orthopedic surgery, and cartilage restoration is one of Dr. Merritt's most specialized areas of practice. He has performed over 220 cartilage procedures across the full spectrum of techniques — from arthroscopic debridement and microfracture for smaller lesions to osteochondral allograft transplantation (OCA) and MACI (matrix-associated autologous chondrocyte implantation) for larger, more complex defects.

Patellar instability — kneecap dislocations and subluxation — is a complex problem that rarely has a one-size-fits-all solution. Every patient's anatomy is different, and effective treatment requires identifying exactly what's contributing to the instability and addressing each factor individually. Dr. Merritt has performed over 240 patella stabilization procedures using a combination of techniques tailored to each patient, including MPFL reconstruction, tibial tubercle osteotomy, lateral retinacular lengthening, and trochleoplasty.

Most of these cases involve combining two or three procedures in a single surgery — for example, an MPFL reconstruction paired with a tibial tubercle osteotomy and lateral retinacular lengthening. The specific combination depends on the patient's anatomy, alignment, and pattern of instability. This is a technically demanding area of knee surgery that Dr. Merritt treats frequently, particularly in younger athletes.

Beyond ACL reconstruction, Dr. Merritt treats complex knee ligament injuries including PCL tears, combined ACL/PCL injuries, MCL and LCL injuries, and multi-ligament knee dislocations. He has performed 68 complex ligament procedures over his career. These are some of the most challenging cases in knee surgery — often involving multiple torn ligaments, multiple graft types, and staged reconstructions. His training at Harborview, where multi-ligament knee injuries are common due to the trauma volume, and his fellowship at Hospital for Special Surgery gave him a strong foundation in managing these complex injuries.

Dr. Merritt provides comprehensive fracture care around the hip, femur, knee, lower leg, and clavicle. Over his career he has treated more than 350 fractures, including hip fractures (intertrochanteric nailing, hemiarthroplasty), femur fractures, tibial plateau fractures, patella fractures, clavicle fractures, and complex periarticular injuries. His fellowship training at Hospital for Special Surgery and residency at Harborview — one of the busiest trauma centers on the West Coast — provided a strong foundation in fracture care.

Dr. Merritt's practice has evolved significantly since he started in 2013. For his first five years, he worked as a general orthopedic surgeon — performing shoulder surgery (rotator cuff repairs, shoulder replacements, labral repairs), ankle fracture fixation, spine cases, and upper extremity trauma alongside his knee and hip work. At its peak in 2017, shoulder surgery made up over 20% of his caseload.

Around 2018, Dr. Merritt made a deliberate decision to stop performing shoulder surgery and focus exclusively on the knee and hip. The reason was simple: he wanted to be the best he could be at a defined set of procedures rather than spread his experience across too many areas. That transition is visible in the charts — shoulder volume drops from 155 procedures in 2017 to essentially zero by 2019, while his knee and hip volumes grew substantially. Today, knee and hip surgery represents over 95% of his practice.