Gregory A. Mencio
Emilee Drost
Having been an orthopaedics patient himself three times, Dr. Gregory Mencio can definitely relate to his patients.
“Growing up, I played a lot of sports and had my share of injuries,” Mencio says. “I think that was the initial draw of orthopaedics. I always thought I would do sports medicine.”
According to Mencio, he committed to orthopaedics in medical school; it was during his residency that he was drawn to the pediatric population.
“I worked at Shriners Hospital during my training, and pediatrics really resonated with me,” Mencio says. “I enjoyed dealing with the families, and pediatrics offered a lot of variety.”
Now, at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, Mencio has honed an orthopaedic niche: most of his practice is in scoliosis and spinal deformities. He is constantly amazed at the rapid pace of medical advances in his field.
“In the past, kids with scoliosis might have needed 12 to 13 different surgeries to implant rods,” Mencio explains. “Now we can treat early onset scoliosis by implanting growing rods. These magnetically controlled rods can grow with the child.”
Mencio says the streamlined process is much less invasive—with no casting or bracing.
“That would have been unheard of 20 years ago, when some children were in a body cast for three to six months after surgery until their spine fused,” Mencio says. “The advent of ‘magic rods,’ as we call them, has dramatically changed the field for the best.”
Mencio remains active in sports like golf and road cycling, and finds that exercise helps combat the stress that comes with the medical territory.
“Every day there’s the challenge of what’s in front of you, and I’m always thinking about how a procedure should go, how it can go wrong, and how to be most prepared,” Mencio says. “We have to be diligent because everything we do bears on our care of the patient.”
Gregory A Mencio, 615-343-5875; vanderbilthealth.com