Physician Spotlight on Dr. Brandon Prioreschi

Get to know Dr. Brandon Prioreschi, total hip and knee replacement specialist, who joined Orthopedic Associates of Middletown in September 2022.

How did you get interested in orthopedics?

I started medical school thinking I would become a pediatrician. Then, I fell in love with surgery during my first week on surgical rotation. I knew the operating room was where I wanted to be. I love orthopedics because you can fix a problem and restore a quality of life that patients have lost. Generally orthopedic patients are motivated and want to get better.

How did your experience in the Navy shape who you are as a physician today?

Growing up, I always wanted to be in the military. My grandfather and uncle served in the Navy. I studied civil engineering in college and then once I chose medicine, I decided to join the Navy. After serving in the reserves for nine years, I was stationed in Guam and Bremerton, WA for four years of active duty as an orthopedic surgeon. We cared for service members of all ages with injuries ranging from ACL tears and dislocated shoulders to arthritis and fractures, and everything in between. My experience taught me to treat each patient as a whole instead of focusing on just the injury. You can have two people with identical x-rays showing the same injury who need to be treated completely differently. What a Navy SEAL needs is different from what a middle-aged Naval Officer needs in terms of type and tempo of treatment and how you manage post-operative care. I also learned how to successfully function within a team – sometimes I had to be the leader and other times, the follower. I learned to work seamlessly with those across all fields in the Navy to accomplish our common goal.

Who is your patient population?

I enjoy taking care of the active, arthritic adult. This is someone who still wants to run, play golf or ski. There are so many treatment options available now to help this population get back to what they want to do, such as hip resurfacing and partial knee replacements. There are also non-operative conservative ways to help mitigate symptoms and keep an arthritic adult active.

What is your patient philosophy?

I tell my patients that they are the head of the team and I’m just a part of it. It’s all about correctly executing the right procedure for the right patient. I don’t tell my patients that they must get surgery – I tell them if they are a candidate, educate them on their condition to explain why it hurts and discuss treatment options. Patients are the only ones who know their own pain so they should make the ultimate decision based on what’s best for their life.

What are your personal interests?

Outside of the operating room, I love woodworking and building furniture. I joke that as a surgeon, I get to build cabinets inside people. I love to ski, hike and cook. These days, I try to spend every minute I can with my wife and two young kids.