Campbell's Core Orthopaedic Procedures

 

so you want to be an orthopedic surgeon you like the idea of fixing broken bones and bro out let's debunk the public perception myths of what it means to be an orthopedic surgeon and give it to you straight this is the reality of orthopedic surgery doctor jabal med school and ciders comm welcome to our next installment in so you want to be in this series we highlight a specific specialty within medicine such as orthopedic surgery and help you decide if it's a good fit for you you can find the other specialties on our so you want to be playlists a lot of you asked for orthopedic surgery and our poll so that's what we're covering here if you want to vote in upcoming polls to decide what future specialties we cover make sure you are subscribed if you'd like to see what being an orthopedic surgeon looks like check out my second channel children was originally concerned with treating children with skeletal deformities like bow legs or knock knees in essence orthopedic surgery focuses on the musculoskeletal system this translates to fractures meaning broken bones but also surgeries involving tendons ligaments and sometimes nerve or vascular injuries the sports injuries you see on TV of your favorite athletes like ACL tears Achilles ruptures or rotator cuff issues are handled by orthopedic surgeons but there is much more to it than that there is a variety of ways to categorize orthopaedic surgery you can look at interventions that deal with fractures of bones versus soft tissue for mentis and tenderness repair you can look at non acute versus acute surgery such as trauma outpatient versus inpatient arthroscopic minimally invasive versus open surgeries adult versus pediatrics or regionally you can look at orthopedic surgery as spine versus pelvis versus extremities to become an orthopedic surgeon you'll have to complete a five-year orthopedic surgery residency after medical school a single research year is generally optional and can be pursued by those interested in becoming Sergent scientists in terms of competitiveness orthopedic surgery is consistently in the top five in most recent years 

Being ranked fourth only behind dermatology Plastic Surgery and neurosurgery to be considered at an orthopedic surgery program your step one score and one rep max on benchpress must exceed 500 otherwise your application will be tossed out I'm kidding obviously but only sort of orthopedic surgery candidates are top students with very high step one and step two scores the field is highly dominated by men at approximately 95 percent however that is changing for the better and I've personally worked with several talented female orthopedic surgeons during my training like all surgical residences orthopedic surgery residency will be incredibly taxing there will be a significant amount of time on inpatient services compared to outpatient which translates to earlier and longer hours after completing residency you can choose to sub specialize further with a fellowship most of which last one year while there are some general orthopods over 80 percent to decide to subspecialize and some even complete two separate fellowships in trauma you'll be dealing with fractures of the long bones of the extremities such as the femur tibia forearm and humerus as well as fractures of the pelvis and hip socket oftentimes these fractures will be open meaning the bone came through the skin and was exposed to the outside world you'll often be managing intra articular fractures at joints such as the elbow shoulder knee and hip intra-articular refers to fractures extending into the actual articulating surface of the joint many of your patients will have multiple if not all extremities injured in some way necessitating planning and coordination of multiple surgeries

you'll be working side-by-side with general surgery trauma surgeons as these patients often have accompanying intra-abdominal and intrathoracic injuries this is the subspecialty for you if you don't mind irregular and unpredictable hours while on call you will often see patients on the worst day of their lives but help them recover from debilitating injuries in order to get back to a normal life the surgeries that you do each day will be diverse and unpredictable but are oftentimes very rewarding the pay not as high compared to other orthopaedic subspecialties because many traumatologist treat uninsured patients and are employed by hospitals instead of being private practice of all these sub specialties pediatric orthopedic surgery is the most broad as you'll be operating on a variety of conditions in patients less than 18 years of age most commonly this includes trauma since kids love breaking things but it also includes sports injuries like ACL tears spine surgeries to correct scoliosis deformity and deformity correction of congenital limb defects you'll see everything from healthy kids who broke their wrist to kids with multiple congenital syndromes who need multiple procedures throughout their lives a great deal of pediatric orthopedic surgery is non-operative this is the subspecialty for orthopods that enjoy a broad scope of practice and have the patience to work with both children and their parents spine includes surgical intervention to correct spinal deformity trauma degenerative disease and nerve compression spine surgeons are consistently among the highest compensated orthopedic surgeons 

you'll be dealing with multiple areas of the axial skeleton operating primarily on the cervical thoracic and lumbar spine and occasionally the sacrum there is some overlap between orthopedic spine surgeons and neurosurgeons as both operate on the spine with similar indications and techniques however neurosurgeons will also operate on lesions that affect the actual spinal cord that extent into the dura which is the outermost layer of the meninges as an orthopedic surgeon you'll stick to just the bony spine and leave the spinal cord to the neurosurgeons hand surgery obviously includes the hand but also the forearm wrist and sometimes up to the elbow or even higher approximately 70% of fellowship-trained hand surgeons first completed an orthopaedic surgery residency but 25 to 30 percent of the time it's plastic surgeons general surgeons can train and hand fellowship as well although it is quite rare this is the subspecialty for the cerebral and intellectual orthopods it's the second most competitive fellowship and deals with incredibly complex anatomy you have to find enjoyment in the nuances and esoteric variations of anatomy and function given the highly complex anatomy you'll be doing a lot of micro surgery operating on microscopes or using surgical loops to better visualize the tendons nerves vessels and bones