Dr. Frank Petrigliano

Internationally renowned orthopaedic surgeon in Los Angeles

Dr. Frank Petrigliano is a orthopaedic sports medicine surgeon in Los Angeles and Vice Chair of Education for the UCLA Department of Orthopaedic Surgery. Dr. Petrigliano serves as the head team physician for the LA Chargers Football team and an associate team physician for UCLA Athletics. He specializes in the care of athletic injuries of the shoulder, knee, and elbow. A native of New York, Dr. Petrigliano completed his undergraduate training at Cornell University where he graduated with honors. Dr. Petrigliano then attended the Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School for his medical training and his residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at UCLA. After residency, Dr. Petrigliano completed a fellowship in Sports Medicine and Shoulder Surgery at the prestigious Hospital for Special Surgery and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City where he assisted in the care of the Brooklyn Nets and Iona College Athletics. Prior to returning to UCLA, Dr. Petrigliano served as chief of the Epstein Family Center for Sports Medicine at Keck Medicine of USC and head team physician for the LA Kings hockey team.

Areas of expertise

Dr. Petrigliano’s surgical practice includes a high volume of arthroscopic shoulder repair, knee ligament reconstruction, cartilage repair and transplantation, and elbow ligament reconstruction. Dr. Petrigliano also performs total shoulder replacements and reverse shoulder replacements. He has been consistently named a Los Angeles Top Doctor, Los Angeles Super Doctor, and Castle Connolly Top Doctor. Dr. Petrigliano and his team are focused on highly individualized, patient-centered care. His team ensures there is a clear explanation of all surgical and non-surgical treatment options, accessibility to the doctor and staff, and timely follow-up on tests and imaging studies. His goal is to return his patients to their sport and active lifestyles with minimal intervention.

Sports Medicine Leadership

Dr. Petrigliano’s research focuses on developing stem-cell based therapies for the treatment of muscle and cartilage injury, and he has received numerous accolades, including the Charles S. Neer Award from the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons, for his study of the role of fibrosis in rotator cuff muscle regeneration. He was selected to participate in the prestigious American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM) European Sports Medicine Traveling Fellowship. As part of this fellowship, he was an invited lecturer at renowned sports medicine centers throughout Europe where he presented his team’s work on cell therapy and bioengineering of musculoskeletal tissues. Dr. Petrigliano has authored over one hundred and thirty articles, chapters, and peer-reviewed publications on shoulder, elbow, and knee injuries in athletes. In 2021, Dr. Petrigliano was awarded a $6 million translational grant from the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine to study a pluripotent stem cell-based implant for cartilage repair. The goal of this research is to improve the outcomes of cartilage repair procedures and reduce the need for subsequent joint replacement surgery.