Week 3

Despite of the fact that Monday and Tuesday were off, two days of shadowing Dr. John Kennedy were productive.


https://www.pinterest.com/pin/353743745705571255/
On Wednesday, I had a chance to observe three cases of surgeries, which were to treat ankle joint injury through microfracture, to inject platelet-rich plasma, and internal fixation. As I discussed in the previous post, microfracture is a sort of simple but effective. This patient had a legion at posterior lateral talus, which requires a sophisticated surgery skill due to limited and curved space. Dr. Kennedy told me that it would be wonderful if there’s an appropriate surgical tool for it. Second case was PRP treatment. It was not a complicated surgery, but it could cause a significant pain for a patient unless performed with general anesthesia, which was the reason the surgery was done in the OR. Last surgery was the internal fixation. The patient had a fibula fracture, and thus internal fixation was treated to tightly hold the fibula until it gets healed. The surgery was interesting because surgical tools, such as screws, drills, and kind of hinges, reminded me of carpentry tools.

https://tricemedical.com/trice-medical-receives-fda-510k-clearance-mi-eye-2/
On Thursday, I shadowed Dr. Kennedy for clinics. Among many patients, one of patients said he feels pain in his left knee. He did not want to have a surgery but want treatment which is instant. In order to treat him, Mi-eye 2 which consists of hypodermic needle and camera was used. It only requires local anesthesia, which means a patient does not have to pay much time and money compared to general surgery conducted in the OR. It can also be tethered to a table with HD pictures, so it eliminates the necessity of MRI, reducing time and cost. After finding out the legion, therapeutic materials can be injected through the needle as well. This is the coolest biomedical device I ever seen at HSS.


Every week, I gain priceless experience and knowledge here and also look forward to what will learn next week.

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