Dr. Menendez earned his medical degree from the New York University Medical School. He also completed a general surgery internship at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. He returned to New York University for his orthopedic surgery residency. Also, he took an oncology fellowship at the University of Florida.

Dr. Menendez first served as a full-time University of Southern California faculty in Orthopedic Surgery in 1985 as an assistant professor. He has since been promoted to Professor of Orthopedic Surgery. He is also the Director of the Orthopedic Oncology. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and many medical associations.

As an orthopedic oncology surgeon, he performs biopsies using small cuts in the body to take samples of the tumor so that the type of tumor can be identified. Since tumors grow in a number of bones in the body, he is accustomed to operate on various parts of the body using different surgical approaches to reach the tumor. In the hip area, he routinely uses the posterior approach, the lateral approach and also the anterior approach to reach the tumor. This all depends on the location of the tumor. So, this led to the anterior approach in total hip replacement.

In the process of getting to the tumor, blood vessels nerves and muscles not intertwined with the tumor are spared. This led to the muscle sparing concept.

Afterwards, he rebuilds the missing bone segment with metal hardware and artificial total joints. Some of these implants may be rather large and are called mega-prosthesis.

The implants are then covered with the patient’s own or biological tissue. His oncological expertise enables him to perform various reconstructions of the body with artificial parts.

So, when a patient only has a painful and disabling joint due to arthritis, he prefers a small incision and muscle sparing technique using an anterior approach.