Jesse Delee, MD

Dr. DeLee is an expert in sports medicine, hip and knee replacement, and reconstructive surgery. He is board-certified by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery and subspecialty-certified in sports medicine by the American Orthopedic Society of Sports Medicine. He has performed countless total hip and knee replacements and arthroscopic knee procedures, including meniscectomy, meniscal repair, ligament repairs, reconstructions, and articular cartilage procedures over a thirty-five year period. Dr. DeLee is currently a Clinical Professor of Orthopedic Surgery at UT Health San Antonio (formerly The University of Texas Health Sciences Center at San Antonio); he has been in this position for thirty years.

Dr. DeLee was raised in Port Arthur, Texas and graduated from high school in 1964. He attended college for three years and then entered the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. He graduated from UTMB after three years and was elected to the prestigious AOA Medical Honor Society his junior year. Dr. DeLee completed an Orthopedic Residency at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center in 1975. He then served a six-month fellowship in joint replacement surgery with Sir John Charnley in England, the founder of total knee and hip replacement surgery. In 1976, when he returned from England, Dr. DeLee joined an Orthopedic Surgery private practice in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for two years. In 1978, he returned to San Antonio and joined the faculty of the Orthopedic Department at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center, where he remained on the faculty until 1983, attaining the position of Professor of Orthopedic Surgery. In 1983, he was awarded the prestigious ABC Traveling Fellowship in Orthopedic Surgery. In 1983, he entered private practice in Orthopedic Surgery in San Antonio, Texas, specializing in Sports Medicine and Joint Replacement Surgery.

Dr. DeLee became interested in Sports Medicine as a result of the influence of his high school football coach in Port Arthur. He started the first Saturday-morning Sports Medicine Clinic in San Antonio and South Texas at the Nix Hospital in 1983. This clinic served athletes in San Antonio and South Texas until 2014, when it was moved to its current location in the CHRISTUS Santa Rosa Health System. In 1994, Dr. DeLee co-authored with Dr. David Drez “Orthopedic Sports Medicine,” which is recognized as the gold-standard textbook in this field and is now in its third edition. In 1989, Dr. DeLee established a postgraduate fellowship in orthopedic sports medicine at The University of Texas Health Sciences Center. This Fellowship provides training for board-eligible Orthopedic Surgeons in the subspecialty of sports medicine. Dr. DeLee directed this fellowship until 2014. During this time, over forty-five orthopedic surgeons have been trained in the program. Dr. DeLee has directed the annual Symposium on Sports Medicine, a program providing education in sports medicine to athletic trainers, physical therapists, and physicians since 1978.

To this day, Dr. DeLee provides medical coverage for high school football games in San Antonio, which he has continued to do since 1974. He was selected a “healthcare hero” by the San Antonio Business Journal in 2003. Dr. DeLee is actively involved in the training of orthopedic surgery residents and medical students at UT Health San Antonio. In 2017, Dr. DeLee was elected into the American Society of Sports Medicine “Hall of Fame.” This coveted award is the highest honor awarded by the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine.

Please visit www.deleesportsmedicine.com for more information