Week 2, and Week 3 of Orthopedic Surgery

Orthopedic surgery is continuing to do well.  Since those two hip replacement revision surgeries, which apparently are only done once a year or so, I have assisted on several arthroscopic procedures and today we had 9 hours of surgery - no waiting around - two total knee replacements and two total hip replacements.   Apparently I am getting a lot of good experiences, since some of these procedures are not done all that often during a single 4 week rotation period.  I definitely feel privileged to be able to handle shards of bone and help drill into patients' dislocated hips.  

One of the patients today had had a hip fracture a long time ago and was immobile at his hip joint because his bones had not set properly and had accessory bone growth within the joint socket and around it, essentially cementing his femur into his pelvis.  It would be neat to see him in post-op after he realizes he can move his hip again on that side.  

Something interesting I found was how the procedures are very step-by-step - everything is cut based on relative positioning and they have a ton of pre-made accessories that they attach to the bone to help guide their cuts.  Also, when boring into the shaft of the femur to place the metal rod, they first make a small hole, then start with the smallest metal rod, and then build up incrementally to the size they wish and it is all very precise.  It is quite neat.  

My preceptor also seems to think I am coming along fine - he and the PA both think I pick up things fast and my preceptor was pleased with my more recent patient presentations and assessments.  He is also very relaxed - the PA as well.  They both have similar political/religious/cultural views (which I of course let them voice first before chiming in at all - I'd rather not take the risk of striking a bad chord) so that helps make for good conversation in the OR.  I have also been allowed to help put respiratory equipment into patients with the anesthesiologists - just the throat dam (not sure the name), but it's still useful to get a little familiarity with the oropharynx.