Stefano Zanasi

Professor Stefano Zanasi practises in Bologna, Italy, and in London, United Kingdom at the Weymouth St. Hospital.

Education and early career

Dr. Zanasi trained in his native Italy, attaining his degree in medicine with honours at the University of Modena in 1986 and then qualified to practice in November 1986. His further training and education included a post-graduate qualification in Orthopaedics from the University of Modena that he started in 1986 gained in 1991 with honours and a post-graduate qualification in Orthopaedics and Traumatology with a focus on hand and microsurgery also from the University of Modena that he started in 1992 and gained in 1996.

Alongside his postgraduate work from that point and until around 2006, Professor Zanasi held a wide variety of both academic and practice posts in orthopaedics in a number of institutions and healthcare facilities including Modena, Brescia, Milan, Bologna, Hannover, London.

Professor Zanasi has also held Professorships in Biotechnologies in Bologna, and Rheumatology in Florence and currently in Belgrade where he is involved in course development.

Current posts

His most recent and current posts are Head of the MIS hip and knee Implant arthroplasty Division of Villa Erbosa Hospital, San Donato Group, Bologna and concurrently Head of Orthopaedics and Biotechnologies at La Madonnina Private Hospital in Milan and Consultant at The Weymouth St. Hospital of London.

Professor Zanasi is Technical Consultant of the Court of Modena and  also undertake consultancy work with major companies including Smith & Nephew and De Puy / Johnson&Johnson, Lima and Permedica in the development and clinical application of orthopaedic implants.

He is a member of a wide variety of national and international professional bodies and he has also attended a multitude of workshops, courses and conferences in Europe and overseas as a participant but mainly as a presenter.
 His research on minimally invasive resurfacing implant arthroplasty, tissue engineering and biotechnologies has resulted in 156 publications in journals in Italian, French and English, and 3 books.

Surgery and research

Professor Zanasi personally performs around 1050 operations per year as Chief Surgeon in the following areas: prosthetic surgeries with minimally invasive technique (including computer-assisted, particularly for hips and knees), elective arthroscopic surgeries of the main joints. He also performs 90/95 cartilage implants per year from autologous culture, and, since 2009, along with one-step technique, he uses adipose derived as well as bone marrow derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) for cartilage reconstruction, mainly on high and medium level athletes, and in the new track for biological treatment of severe osteoarthritis in the main joints of lower and upper limbs. He set up his own personal hybrid solution combining partial resurfacing implant arthroplasty with stem cells resurfacing of partial or whole compartments cartilage defects.

As far as innovations in implant arthroplasty are concerned, his studies in this field taken to develop and patent, with the University of Ferrara and Bologna, an implant surface coating system with hydroxyapatite nanostructure, lactoferrin and zinc exhibiting highest antimicrobial properties to avoid and treat infection in implant arthroplasties, which is considered one of the most devastating complications linked to all medical devices, in particular for orthopaedics and trauma