Orthopedics

I just finished my two week orthopedic anesthesia rotation, which was a perfect re-introduction to the operating room. The orthopedics rotation is designed to teach us about specific anesthetic concerns regarding joint replacement. We work with a small group of anesthesia attendings and surgeons and do mostly hip and knee replacements, which allow us to learn a few surgeries very well. There's a syllabus that covers much of orthopedic anesthesia, from the use of tourniquets to rare events such as cement emboli to proper neuraxial anesthesia techniques. Early in the year, I feel that it's so helpful to have a routine, and when I look at my schedule and see three knees and a hip, I know what to plan for and how to structure my day. I learn to anticipate what surgeons will do at each step of the procedure. I get to do a good variety of spinal anesthetics, general anesthetics, and cases with deep sedation. While at the VA, I approached knee and hip surgeries with one anesthetic plan, on this rotation, I got to see the range of possible anesthetic approaches and how patients did with each postoperatively.

Image of a knee X-ray after a joint replacement shown under GNU Free Documentation License, from Wikipedia.