Sarah Bush Lincoln is pleased to welcome Orthopedic Surgeon James Kohlmann, MD, to its medical team.
After caring for area residents in a private practice for more than 24 years, he is excited to bring his expertise to Sarah Bush Lincoln where he began his career in 1992. “I can’t tell you how happy I am to be back. It’s like coming home,” he said.
Dr. Kohlmann looks forward to working alongside Orthopedic Surgeons Louis Mendella, DO, DC, Donald Sandercock, DO, AOAO, and Jeremy Stevens, MD, at SBL Orthopedics & Sports Medicine. “I bring a fair amount of experience to the table and I’m very good at the procedures I do,” he said. “I love sharing what I know with my colleagues, and I think they’re just as excited to share what they know with me.”
Having grown in Champaign, Dr. Kohlmann earned a bachelor’s degree in physics at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and a medical degree from the University of Illinois School of Medicine in Chicago. He completed an internship and residency in orthopedic surgery at University of Illinois-affiliated hospitals in Chicago, where he gained experience working in the trauma units of several Cook County hospitals.
While Dr. Kohlmann had known since childhood that he wanted to be a doctor, he was uncertain about which specialty he would pursue until he did clinical rotations and discovered a love for orthopedics.
“Orthopedics is a great specialty because you can have a profound impact on a person’s life,” he said. “I saw a patient just yesterday that I did a total hip replacement on and I didn’t recognize her because she looked 15 or 20 years younger. The procedure freed her from excruciating pain and allowed her to move back home from a nursing home. It’s just amazing the impact you can have.”
Dr. Kohlmann offers a broad range of services. He treats virtually every musculoskeletal injury and condition, including spinal stenosis and herniated intervertebral discs. Dr. Kohlmann has performed numerous joint replacements through the years and is amazed by how positively his patients are impacted by improvements in medical technology. “The new implant technology is just phenomenal today! I can do a procedure and be confident that the patient will be fine for many years or maybe even the rest of their life,” he said.
Dr. Kohlmann is one of only a few surgeons in the area trained to perform anterior approach hip replacement, a surgery that typically offers a less painful and faster recovery, plus improved mobility, thanks to the sparing of muscle tissue during the minimally invasive surgery.
For more information about SBL Orthopedics & Sports Medicine or to make an appointment with Dr. Kohlmann, call 217-238-3435. His office is located in Prairie Pavilion 2, 1004 Health Center Dr., Suite 100, Mattoon.