Laszlo Hangody graduated in 1982 at Semmelweis University, and specialized in orthopedics, in 1986, and in traumatology in 1988. In 1994, he defended his Ph.D. thesis concerning the experimental and clinical background of cartilage repair surgery. In the same field, with his further research and innovations, in 2000 he acquired his Doctor of Sciences degree from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. He became the Head of the Orthopedics-Traumatology Department at Uzsoki Hospital in the same year. In 2003, he habilitated at University of Debrecen, Faculty of Medicine, and in the same year he acquired his university private professor degree.
He has contributed to the graduate and postgraduate education program at Semmelweis University in orthopedics as well as traumatology, and continues to hold lectures for students’ at all four Hungarian medical universities since 1990. In 2010, he was nominated to be the Head of Department of Semmelweis University, Department of Traumatology as well as Director of Traumatology at Péterfy Sándor Hospital Traumatology Center. In 2013, as further acknowledgment of his academic work, he was the first Hungarian musculoskeletal surgeon to become a member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
He has been the president of the Hungarian Orthopaedic Association, the Hungarian Arthroscopy Association, and he has also been elected for executive board member of several international associations including ESSKA, ICRS and EFORT Trauma Task Force. He has participated in the editorial staff of numerous Hungarian and international journals also.
His professional career has been recognized by Hungarian associations and universities granting him the Dollinger Award, Lumniczer Award, Markusovszky Award and Jendrassik Award. In 2004 he has been nominated as a honorary member of the Arthroscopy Association of North America, since 2011 his department had been selected as a FIFA Medical Centre of Excellence, and since 2019 as ESSKA Teaching Center. Other domestic achievements include Prima Award (2011), Gábor Dénes Award (2015), Szabó György Award (2016), Széchenyi Award (2017), Batthyány-Strattman Award (2017), the Academy-Patent Award (2017), and Svébis Mihály Award (2019).
His principal innovations concerned cartilage repair and ligament surgeries, but he has reached remarkable advancements regarding implant and instrument development for knee arthroplasty. He performed extended animal trials and biomechanical studies to develop the mosaicplasty technique and introduced it in the clinical practice in 1992. The collaborative research with his colleagues has led to significant innovations concerning biodegradable matrixes and ultra-fresh osteochondral allograft transplantation, as well as artificial intelligence supported resurfacing techniques for damaged articular surfaces.
