Dr. Martin Gruber

He is one of the most eminent and well-known sports doctors in Austria: renowned orthopaedic surgeon Dr Martin Gruber has been on the staff of the Austrian Ski Federation for many years - and has supported many top athletes and medal hopefuls at events, including the legendary Hahnenkamm Race. When it comes to the knee, there are few doctors in Austria who have such expertise – and such a wealth of experience. So it’s no surprise that his medical centre in Vienna's Alserstraße is popular among knee patients.

Dr Martin Gruber is an excellent example of how specialisation creates an edge in high-performance medicine today. Focusing on just one joint means that he has become familiar with the most complex and detailed issues. As he says, Dr Gruber has “invested 25 years of his life in the wonder that it is the knee,” yet he still remains fascinated by the largest and most complex joint in the body

and despite having extensive knowledge and being intimately familiar with its secrets, he still believes it to be a technical masterpiece. “It is a highly efficient machine with countless components, connections, gadgets and functions,” he says. Keeping the knee functioning smoothly is therefore a matter of “accurately turning the right screw”. Restoring injured knees to full functionality at the highest level requires sophisticated technology, an extensive understanding of physics and mechanics – and a wealth of experience.

Excellent expertise in theory and practice

Dr Gruber has developed his extraordinary expertise in all aspects of the knee joint over many years. As well as over ten years of training, he has spent thousands of hours in practice and performed well over ten thousand knee joint operations. It is precisely this experience that allows Dr Gruber to be able to propose alternative treatments to surgery even if it might initially seem inevitable because he understands every part of the knee inside out. “For me, surgery only comes at the end of a detailed analysis,” he says. “If I see a way to get results with movement and therapy, I’ll follow this path with my patients.”

The Alserstraße Medical Centre is officially an elective medical centre for orthopaedic surgery, sports orthopaedics and sports medicine, rheumatology and rehabilitation. It is here that Dr Martin Gruber leads Vienna's first interdisciplinary medical centre for exercise medicine, which focuses entirely on the prevention, diagnosis, therapy and rehabilitation of musculoskeletal disorders. So, if you visit the Alserstraße Medical Centre in Vienna, you can be safe in the knowledge that you will be treated by a specialist in orthopaedics and orthopaedic surgery. A specialist who combines passion and commitment with experience and expertise, and offers understanding and insight to lay the foundation for a successful treatment all the way through from taking the medical history to performing comprehensive clinical examinations with all the required equipment.

Renowned sports doctor with many roles – at Olympic level

If you enjoy exercise, then Dr Gruber is the perfect doctor for you. As the Austrian Ski Federation team doctor for the downhill squad, he was part of Austrian Olympic Committee at the Olympic Games in Vancouver in 2010 and in Sochi in 2014. It therefore goes without saying that he is also Olympic level in diagnostics and treatment – in all areas of his work. Dr Gruber also helped to establish the Vienna Sports Hall, where fitness is offered in its most natural form – and where exercise is still considered an adventure. Here, sport is considered as a functional and innovative holistic concept that can be used to both counter back pain as well as strengthen cardiac function. For co-founder Dr Martin Gruber, the gym is much more than a fitness studio: personal training covers everything here, including medical care.

Holistic care is also important at the Alserstraße medical centre (MZA). Whether it’s targeted physiotherapy for the treatment of physiological functions of the musculoskeletal system, whether it's making sure that work and family commitments are considered during outpatient rehabilitation, or whether it's developing detailed individual plans for optimal recovery, Dr Gruber always considers the patient as a whole in their treatment. This means that he considers not only the physical balance of training and healthy nutrition in his treatments, but also the right amount of recovery.

Dr Gruber understands the knee in all its complexity. He is considered one of the foremost experts on the meniscus, which is an important shock absorber that stabilises the knee. This allows him to provide a variety of treatments for a meniscus tear, depending on the location – and he is just as familiar with meniscus sutures as he is with refixation. Difficult meniscus transplants are also part of Dr Gruber's everyday work.

Meniscus, cartilage, cruciate ligament: comprehensive expertise

He also has a lot of experience with “annoyed cartilage” as he calls it. Depending on the depth, the extent and the exact location of the cartilage damage, Dr Gruber chooses from several different treatment methods, which are always based on the international state of research. From cartilage smoothing to ACT or MACT or even stem cell transplantation – Dr Gruber always chooses the best treatment for a quick recovery and, ideally, a return to unrestricted mobility.

When it comes to the cruciate ligament, Dr Gruber is regarded as a leading authority, and not just in the Austrian sports world. His services range from reconstruction of the cruciate ligament and repair of peripheral instabilities to replacement of the cruciate ligament with tendons and transplantation of donor cruciate ligaments. Of course, he also treats the various disorders of the kneecap, “We can only stretch and bend our knee without pain if the patella functions properly,” says the specialist – and of course, he always knows what to do.

The international orthopaedic field is constantly changing – and Dr Gruber always has his finger on the pulse of developments. He has also made a name for himself in leg straightening and growth correction. Straightening legs is often required for a successful meniscus operation or cruciate ligament surgery.

Comprehensive expertise: joint preservation and artificial joints

Although Dr Martin Gruber is considered a master of joint preservation, it is sometimes an impossible task. Anyone who has suffered with a damaged knee for a long time may see total knee endoprosthesis as the best option. Dr Gruber also has a lot of experience in muscle-preserving endoprostheses and helps patients with advanced knee arthrosis, for example, lead a pain-free yet mobile and even sporty life. The team at the Alserstraße Medical Centre offers highly individualised implants that preserve bone – and uses cartilage procedures that are state-of-the-art in international orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine.

The “MZA” in the Austrian capital offers every conservative and surgical treatment conceivable to guarantee exceptional care from the initial diagnosis to rehabilitation and aftercare, even beyond the obvious medical necessities. This includes things like exercising in water: the in-house Long Distance Pool is used to improve health, wellbeing and fitness, with four cameras analysing patients' movements to optimise treatment. Sophisticated underwater therapies also help to identify limitations and pain more precisely – and to take action against them.

Countless other high-tech treatments are also offered in Vienna – all provided by a competent team that works closely together in an interdisciplinary manner to deliver a comprehensive and seamless network of all relevant medical fields. Doctors, physiotherapists, sports physiologists, performance diagnosticians, osteopaths, therapeutic massage specialists, nutritionists and many others work together to ensure patients recover as quickly as possible. And of course, it’s always specific to the patient.

With the elective medical centre in Vienna's Alserstraße, Dr Martin Gruber has created an innovative centre with an international reach. With this centre, the experienced sports doctor, who also looks after the Viennese beach volleyball team, the Majors, as medical director at the Federal Institute for Competitive Sports, has fulfilled his dream of creating an exceptional institution focusing on the functionality of the musculoskeletal system – primarily, of course: the knee in all its complexity. It’s a pleasure to meet a specialist who has found his purpose, “I have dedicated my entire professional life to the treatment of the musculoskeletal system.”