Today was a great day in the OR! I was back in the Raleigh Orthopedic Surgery Center and saw 5 surgeries today: a tendon repair using an artificial tendon, an ankle fusion, a broken ankle, multiple toe realignments, and a tendon cleanup.
One of the most interesting things that I saw today was arthroscopy being used twice in two different surgeries. Arthroscopy is where a probe with a camera is used and inserted into the body, so the surgeon can see what he/she is working on without having to make a big incision. Dr. Logel used arthroscopy today in the ankle joints of both patients. They both had had past injuries which caused debris, also known as scar tissue, cartilage, etc., to form in between the two bones. This causes inflammation of the joint and the patients feel pain. To get rid of this debris, Dr. Logel made two very small incisions on the joint and put the camera probe in on one side and a vibrating tool in the other. He would use the camera screen to see where his tool was and would cut away at all of the debris. He said arthroscopy was the doctor’s videogame, and he was pretty good at it! I enjoyed this part of surgery because I could fully see what was going on during the surgery, rather than just seeing from farther away.
Another cool thing that I saw today was a patient whos ankle joint had no cartilage in it between the two bones that she had minimal motion of the ankle and lots of pain as the bones were constantly rubbing together. The surgery that was done for this patient was to fuse the two ankle bones together. This was done by removing any debris from the joint, breaking a bit of bone here and there to simulate a bone break (the bone heals faster if it is broken), and then putting 4 screws in to the two bones to lock it together. Dr. Logel explained how the patient would still have some ankle motion from side to side but the ankle wouldn’t be able to move up and down. However, this was only a little less movement than she had already been dealing with, just without the pain.
Lastly, another thing that I thought was very interesting was the way that Dr. Logel fixed a broken ankle. This patient had broken his ankle 3 weeks prior and it had already started forming bone callus, but it wasn’t aligned correctly. This said, Dr. Logel went into the ankle and basically rebroke the ankle, taking out all of the newly formed bone callus and anything that was holding the bone sections together. He then used a tight clamp and an x-ray called the “C Arm” to make sure that the bones were lined up correctly and then he drilled a 7 screw plate into his ankle, securing the bones from separating.
Overall, I am very appreciative and grateful that I was given the opportunity to go into the OR with Dr. Logel and see about 10 surgeries! Everyone in the OR was very friendly, welcoming, and eager that someone was interested in their field! I learned so much more than I ever could have just in clinic and it was great to actually see things being fixed in person!
