Gregory S. DiFelice, MD

Dr. Gregory S. DiFelice is a fellowship-trained orthopaedic surgeon specializing in Sports Traumatology and Joint Reconstruction Surgery at Hospital for Special Surgery and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. He also holds an academic appointment at Weill Cornell Medical College as an Associate Attending Orthopaedic Surgeon. His primary surgical focus is the treatment of the knee, shoulder, and hip. Using both non-surgical and surgical methods, he is dedicated to applying the latest technologies to improve patient outcomes while preserving native tissues whenever possible. He refers to this customized approach as Preservation First®, a philosophy that has guided his practice for more than 20 years. His guiding principle is simple yet transformative: surgery should always be a last resort, and when it is necessary, the most conservative procedure should be performed to achieve the best, most durable results. This careful balance of risks and benefits for each individual patient is, in essence, the art of surgery.

At the heart of Dr. DiFelice’s work is his philosophy: TRUST THE BODY™. He believes the human body has an extraordinary capacity to heal itself when given the right opportunity. Rather than defaulting to replacement or reconstruction, he focuses on preserving what nature has already built, respecting the strength, intelligence, and resilience of the body’s own tissues. By trusting the body and working in harmony with it, his goal is not only to help patients recover more quickly, but also to provide outcomes that feel natural and endure for a lifetime.

Dr. DiFelice is a recognized surgical innovator who has developed several cutting-edge techniques to preserve a patient’s torn ligaments rather than replacing them, the current standard of care. His approach incorporates minimally invasive techniques such as Primary Repair and Primary Repair with Augmentation. By saving native ligament tissue, he minimizes surgical trauma, shortens recovery time, and restores more natural function to the knee. Today, in 50–75% of ACL injury cases, he is able to preserve most,  if not all, of a patient’s native tissue, significantly reducing the need for grafts. ACL reconstruction, the traditional approach of replacing the torn ligament with a graft, is used only as a last resort when preservation is no longer possible. As the surgical innovator of this modern-day preservation movement, Dr. DiFelice has published and lectured extensively, both nationally and internationally, helping to shape a new standard of care that prioritizes healing, resilience, and the power of preservation.

Admittedly, not all ligaments, nor all joints for that matter, can be saved, and Dr. DiFelices’ Preservation First® to surgery is also evident in his approach to arthritic joints. Rather than the standard approach of the majority of surgeons, that everyone with arthritis gets a total joint replacement surgery, his approach is more nuanced and is customized for each patient, based on their health, activity level and particular pattern of arthritis. He is an expert in both realignment osteotomy and robotic unicompartmental arthroplasty, two techniques that allow the patient to avoid the larger, more morbid total joint arthroplasty when in their best interests. In addition, he is also an expert in both total hip and total knee arthroplasty, having performed thousands of these procedures over his 20+-year career, which allows him to provide patients with the treatment option that is best for them.