Francesco Benazzo MD

Francesco Benazzo was born in Pavia on 13 October 1955. Born and raised in Pavia, from a Piedmontese father and a Lomellina mother, he attended Ugo Foscolo classical high school and enrolled in the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of Pavia in 1974. He graduated in 1980 and immediately joins the team of Orthopedic and Traumatology specializing students of the Orthopedic and Traumatology Clinic of the University of Pavia, the first year of the passage of the duration of the specialty from 3 to 5 years. The specialty school was directed by Prof. Mario Boni. The specialty of orthopedics was the natural and desired choice, given the passion for the study of connective tissues, fundamental constituents of the musculoskeletal system (Research investigations on electron microscopy, 1977-1983, Institute of Human Anatomy, University of Pavia, and Abteilung Elektronenmikroskopie, Medizinische Hochschule, Hannover, using special techniques such as freeze-etching and freeze-fracture, applied to collagen tissue (cartilage and tendons) and Institute of Human Anatomy, University of Bologna).

During the specialty, he was addressed by prof. Mario Boni in the field of sports traumatology, of which the Orthopedic Clinic was and is a reference center (Section of studies and research in medicine and sports traumatology), becoming a consultant, since then as a team, at the Los Angeles Olympic Games of 1984, and since then at numerous international sporting events (European and World Championships). Practical and active interest in sports traumatology: team doctor of a football team in excellence from 1980 to 1986; orthopedic consultant of Inter FC from 2000 to 2014; orthopedic consultant since 1983 for FIDAL (Italian Federation of Athletics; since 2015, orthopedic consultant of Sassuolo Calcio).

In 1985 he specialized in the discipline and won the traveling fellowship of COCOMAC (European organization that preceded EFORT) as the best Italian resident along with two other Italian colleagues who were newly specialized in Portugal. In 1987, he became assistant of the Sports Traumatology Section of the Orthopedic and Traumatology Clinic of the University of Pavia, until 1990. In this year, he moved on to a university career, becoming a Researcher in the orthopedic discipline, to finally become a directly full professor of Orthopedics and Traumatology in 2000.

From 2002, until 2020, he directed the Orthopedic and Traumatology Clinic of the University of Pavia, the IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo Foundation, and the School of Specialties in the discipline. From 1 March 2020, he is Director of the Section of Robotic Prosthetic Surgery - and Sports Traumatology Unit, at the Poliambulanza Foundation of Brescia, while maintaining the chair of Orthopedics and Traumatology at the University of Pavia, and the Directorate of the School. of Specialty in this discipline.