Tam Sai-Kit Professorship in Orthopaedics and Traumatology

Bone fractures are one of the most common injuries that people suffer, and the average person may have two during a lifetime. Broken bones are relatively widespread in the young and the old, and take around six to ten weeks to heal, depending on the age and health of the person and the type of break.

And while the young generally recover quickly, fixing breaks in the elderly is more complicated as their bones are more brittle. However, a simple but effective new medical screw design being pioneered at Queen Mary Hospital (QMH) may allow for better internal hip and shoulder fixations.

Professor Frankie Leung Ka-Li is Chief of Service of Orthopaedics and Traumatology at the Hong Kong University Shenzhen Hospital (HKUSZH), and Chief of the Division of Orthopaedic Trauma at QMH. He is a world-renowned expert in orthopaedic trauma care.

Professor Leung is dedicated to improving fracture fixation and implant design. He and his team have been looking into the effectiveness and practicality of various implant devices. Trials of new fixation devices, such as locking plates, nails, external fixators and more, have been conducted for fracture management.

Global populations are aging and the number of fragility fractures will continue to increase. The current implant design cannot fully address the problem of poor fixation in osteoporotic bones. Since 2014, Professor Leung and his team have been working on a novel anti-cut-out screw design for the internal fixation of osteoporotic hip and shoulder fractures.

The project received Innovation and Technology Fund support in 2016. As a result, his team were awarded Silver Medal at the 46th International Exhibition of Inventions of Geneva for this innovative screw design. More recently, his team won the top prize at the Hello Tomorrow Regional Summit. This helps to showcase the prominence of The University of Hong Kong (HKU) in innovation and technology.

He and his team at HKUSZH established a municipal Key Laboratory of Innovative Technology in Orthopaedic Trauma, with the support of the Shenzhen Science and Technology Innovation Commission. He is leading the team to work on the use of different metal alloys in bone stimulation and the respective anti-infective properties.

Professor Leung graduated from the Medical Faculty at HKU in 1989. He joined the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology at QMH as a Medical Officer in 1990. Due to his outstanding clinical and research work in fracture treatment, he was promoted to Consultant in 2005. He then joined the University and became a Clinical Associate Professor in 2009 and was promoted to Clinical Professor in 2015.

He has published in various international orthopaedic journals and has authored book chapters in AO Manual of Fracture Management - Internal Fixator, and Rockwood and Green’s Fractures in Adults, among others. He is a pioneer in locking plate fixation of osteoporotic fractures and introduced the treatment to Hong Kong about two decades ago.

Professor Leung is active in educating young orthopaedic surgeons in the practice of fracture surgery. He organises annual fracture management courses and has been invited as keynote speaker at major orthopaedic conferences and symposia. He is currently deputy editor of the Journal of Orthopaedic Surgery and editor of several journals in orthopaedic surgery.

His professional appointments include Senior AO Trustee (AO is the largest non-profit academic organisation in musculoskeletal trauma), Chairperson of the AO Trauma Global Research Commission, and National Delegate to Société Internationale de Chirurgie Orthopédique et de Traumatologie (SICOT) and the Asia Pacific Orthopaedic Association for Hong Kong.