Week 5- Jonathan

This week I spent two days watching Dr. Bostrom perform hip replacement surgeries. By now I have probably watched him perform around 30 hip and knee surgeries and I feel like I have a very good handle on what goes on in a joint replacement OR. I have learned the roles of each member of the surgical staff and how they work together. I have learned about of the the surgical tools and procedures used to ensure that the implants are installed correctly. Overall, watching knee and hip replacement surgeries at HSS has been an amazing experience.

I spent one day this week observing Dr. Bostrom in the clinic. After watching Dr. Bostrom examine X-rays from patients the last 6 weeks, my ability to guess the diagnosis for incoming patients has gotten much better. If you know how and where to look arthritis can easily be detected by X-ray, greatly aiding the surgeon's ability to know why the patient is in pain and how to help them.

The most interesting case I saw this week was from a case we could not diagnose. A patient came in a lot of pain. He had a hip replacement in one leg and a femoral fracture repair on the other leg. He had previously had top have his hip replacement revised due to infection. While it was clear that he was in agonizing pain. It was unclear why. He complained about pain in his backside and piercing pain running down the side of the leg he had the hip replacement on. It could be a new infection in his hip, but it could also be arthritis the the lower spine and nerve damage. Dr. Bostrom prescribed him to have blood work taken to identify a possible infection. If it comes back positive, he will aspirate the knee for further information about the infection.

This week I gave my research presentation to Dr. Bostrom's lab. I received great feedback from them and I am working this week to make my presentation even better. I am also working now on assembling my final project report. Since  my project was to conduct a review of cementless fixation of total knee replacements, I will be writing my final report in review article form. (Since I do not have a a well defined materials and methods and results sections). Overall it has been a great week.