Mara Karamitopoulos, MD

I never imagined a career in orthopedics—I went to medical school intending to be an obstetrician and deliver babies for a living! I had great mentors when I first entered medical school: they pushed me to consider orthopedic surgery. It is one of the few fields in medicine where you can often see immediate results to problems, and that was very gratifying. I have always loved working with kids, which makes pediatric orthopedics such a great fit. There’s nothing like getting a handmade drawing from a child you’ve helped.

As a pediatric orthopedist, I see a little bit of everything, from kids with sports injuries and fractures to children born with hip or foot issues. Parents regularly seek advice on developmental issues, such as feet turning inward (toeing-in). I also treat very complex conditions in young people, some of whom come to us from very far away. At least half of my practice is focused on the care of children with cerebral palsy and other brain or nervous system conditions that cause a motor disability or delay.

I specialize in neuromuscular hip reconstruction, a type of surgery to correct hip dislocation in children who have cerebral palsy or other neuromuscular conditions. I also perform single-event multilevel surgery to correct multiple musculoskeletal issues at once in children and young adults with cerebral palsy.

Most families seek out a surgeon to help improve a child’s quality of life. The more complicated the case, the more essential it is to figure out what’s important to the family and the patient. Am I improving your child’s quality of life by doing a procedure, or am I harming their quality of life by not doing a procedure? If there’s a choice, we talk about it, and if the child can engage in the conversation in an age-appropriate way, all the better. An X-ray doesn’t tell you the whole story. Communication is paramount.

At the Center for Children, part of Hassenfeld Children’s Hospital at NYU Langone, we provide outpatient care for children recovering from an injury or managing an orthopedic, musculoskeletal, or neuromuscular condition. Our orthopedists, neurologists, and physical therapists work as a team. My ability to care for children with complex conditions is so much richer because of this level of multidisciplinary care. As director of both the Division of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery and the Center for Children, I am committed to expanding our excellent programs and facilities, especially for children with spina bifida and cerebral palsy.

Much of my research focuses on access to care and social determinants of health. As I learned early in life, when my grandmother passed away from a brain tumor, if you don’t speak English and you don’t have people who can advocate for your care, symptoms can be missed—or misdiagnosed. That experience drew me into medicine and sparked my interest in public health. Today, getting care to kids—wherever they are, whatever they need—is what drives me.