Yamaguchi elected to Board of American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons

Washington University orthopaedic surgeon Ken Yamaguchi, M.D., has been elected to the board of directors of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons (AAOS). He will serve the academy as member-at-large.

Ken Yamaguchi
Ken Yamaguchi

Yamaguchi, a professor of orthopaedic surgery and staff physician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, is currently chief of the Department’s Shoulder and Elbow Service. His clinical interests include arthroscopic treatment of rotator cuff disorders, shoulder instability and elbow arthritis. Additionally, he performs a large number of shoulder and elbow total joint replacements.

Involved in several professional societies, Yamaguchi is an active member of the American Society of Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons, American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, Arthroscopy Association of North America, American Orthopaedic Association and Orthopaedic Research Society. He also has held positions on the AAOS research committee and scientific program committee.

Yamaguchi is an author of more than 100 publications and has given numerous scientific presentations nationally and internationally. He is an editorial reviewer for the American Journal of Sports Medicine and Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research, and an associate editor for Techniques in Shoulder and Elbow Surgery. He also is the former associate editor of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery and currently deputy editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons section on upper extremity, shoulder and elbow.

The recipient of various awards and honors throughout his career, Yamaguchi was selected to complete the American Orthopaedic Association’s prestigious John J. Fahey Memorial North American Traveling Fellowship, was recognized with the Thomas M. Coffman Career Development Award from the Orthopedic Research and Education Foundation and received the Palma Chironis Teaching Award from Washington University’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. He also recently received a National Institutes of Health grant to study rotator cuff disease.

He joined the faculty in 1995. After earning his medical degree from George Washington School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., Yamaguchi completed his residency at George Washington Hospital and a fellowship in shoulder and elbow surgery at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York.

With more than 29,000 members, the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons provides education programs for orthopaedic surgeons and allied health professionals, and it champions patient interests as well as advancing the highest quality musculoskeletal health. Orthopaedic surgeons and the academy are the authoritative sources of information for patients and the general public on musculoskeletal conditions, treatments and related issues. Yamaguchi was elected to the board of directors at the 73rd annual meeting of the AAOS, held March 22-26 in Chicago.


Washington University School of Medicine’s full-time and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient care institutions in the nation, currently ranked fourth in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children’s hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.