Dr. Peter Siska Brings His Expertise to Wheeling Hospital and WVU Medicine

By Andrew Wilson

Some physicians may prefer the challenge of figuring out what mysterious ailment afflicts their patient, but Peter Siska, M.D., an orthopedic surgeon with WVU Medicine, prefers a more straightforward approach.

“I’m not interested in diagnostic mysteries. I want to solve problems,” he said. “That’s what drew me to orthopedic surgery. Orthopedic surgery deals with practical problems that patients have – pain caused by a severely broken bone or a bad knee or hip.”

Dr. Siska says orthopedics seeks to relieve a patient’s pain using not just medical science, but applying other sciences, such as math and physics, to determine the best place to insert a rod to shore up a broken bone or the best place to make a cut when a patient needs hip or knee replacement surgery. The goal, of course, is to promote healing, and to do so in a way that the only immediate follow-up that is needed is physical rehabilitation.

Back in high school, Dr. Siska says he wasn’t certain of a career in medicine. He shadowed a couple of professionals. One was an attorney who told him he should be a doctor. The legal profession’s loss was cemented when the second person he shadowed was a physician – Dr. Bill Stewart, a cardiologist with the Cleveland Clinic.

“He was a wonderful person and a great doctor who always had time for his patients,” Dr. Siska remembers. “From then on, I focused on school. I wanted to be a doctor.”

He says he also wanted to work with his hands, a skill that is ideally suited to orthopedic surgery.  Dr. Siska specializes in complex fractures and hip and knee replacement surgery, which means he may work with patients who have suffered horrible traumas, such as injuries from a car accident, or older patients in severe pain who may be candidates for hip or knee replacements.

“As a trauma surgeon, I am meeting people on a very bad day,” he said. “They have suffered a severe trauma, and I hope to get them back to as close to normal as possible.”

He acknowledges that “normal” may not be possible in every trauma situation, which depends a great deal on the severity of the injury. Although there are no guarantees, the goal remains the same.

“In the situations where we can, surgeons try to give people the opportunity to get back to normal functioning,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we can make patients feel 18 again, but the hope is to make them the best version of themselves they can be. It’s all about quality of life.”

As an undergraduate, Dr. Siska was a NCAA Division III quarterback. That experience as a college athlete has taught the importance of certain values that carry over into his professional career.

“Football, or any college sport really, teaches athletes to have a strong work ethic, as well as the value of teamwork, accountability, perseverance, and discipline,” he said. “Those qualities come into play in professional life, too.”

Being an athlete prior to becoming a surgeon has also given him a perspective on the precautions the average person should take to prevent activity-related injuries. 

“It begins with stretching to warm up before you begin any activity,” Dr. Siska said. “You also need to stay within yourself. You may want to play basketball with your teenage son and his friends, but you can’t do that stuff cold. If you haven’t exercised in years, you have to ease yourself into it. If you don’t, you will injure yourself and then you will stop exercising.”

Dr. Siska says sprains and pulled muscles don’t heal as fast at 50 as they heal at 15, but that doesn’t mean that someone 50 or older should remain sedentary. Far from it.

“At every age, good quality of life depends on maintaining a baseline level of fitness,” he said. “It especially matters as you age. Being mobile in the world, exercising every day, and good nutrition helps you maintain a good quality of life.”

It may be difficult for some patients to hear, but Dr. Siska believes that achieving the best outcome is often dependent more on the patient than the surgeon. Two patients with similar injuries may have vastly different outcomes. Why is that?

“Truthfully, surgery is only a small piece of the puzzle. A patient’s effort in rehab often determines the outcome,” he said.

That’s why he believes it is good to have a good match between patient and surgeon. He likens finding a surgeon to speed dating.

“Find someone you can connect with and trust. Someone who will be there for you when you need it,” Dr. Siska said. “At WVU Medicine, the vision is to provide tertiary level care in our community, so people don’t have to travel one or two hours to see a doctor and get expert care. You can get expert care right here.”

In his 17th year of practice, Peter Siska, MD, is board-certified in orthopedic surgery by the American Board of Orthopedic Surgery. He is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine and completed his residency and fellowship in orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Siska sees patients at the following location:

Orthopedics, Wheeling Hospital Tower 1 
10 Medical Park Drive 
Tower 1, Suite 203
Wheeling, WV 26003

Please call (304) 243-3290 to make an appointment with Dr. Siska.