University of Sydney: Medical Student Info
Information for Medical Students Completing a Term in Orthopaedic Surgery with the Orthopaedic Department at Concord Hospital
Download and review the Powerpoint lecture on "Orthopaedic Emergencies, Hip Fractures, and The Injured Limb".
At the request of The University of Sydney Medical School, Dr Trantalis has prepared a "Shoulder Examination" Tutorial:
Please note, information below may be downloaded from here:
CRGH Orthopaedic Medical Student Handout
If you have difficulty viewing this Adobe PDF document, click to download Adobe PDF Reader:
Dear Student,
On behalf of the Orthopaedic Department at Concord Hospital I’d like to welcome you to your rotation with our department. During this term, we hope to teach you the essentials and basics of clinical orthopaedics. Hopefully by the end of the term you’ll decide that orthopaedic surgery is your chosen career path, but even if this is not the case, it’s important to understand that patients’ with orthopaedic problems form a large bulk of both emergency department and general practice workloads, so learning the essentials now will keep you in good stead in the future.
Your learning objectives during this terms are as follows:
1. Orthopaedic Emergencies
a. Be able to recognise, investigate and understand the basics of treatment of the following conditions:
b. Compartment Syndrome
c. Septics Arthritis
d. The Injured and Threatened Limb
i. Open injuries and threatened skin
ii. Vascular Compromise
iii. Neurological Compromise
e. Protecting the Cervical Spine
2. Orthopaedic History
a. Pain profile
b. Joint Profile
c. Functional Profile
d. General Medical History
3. Orthopaedic Examination
a. Look
b. Feel
c. Move
d. Special Tests
4. Osteoarthritis
a. Clinical presentation
b. Xray Changes
c. Treatment Options
5. Fractures
a. Describing Xrays
b. Basics of Fracture Care in the Emergency Department
c. Fractured Neck of Femurs: Understand their epidemiology, classification, operative care and post-operative care.
Most of these topics should be covered at some stage during your rotation, but you are also expected to read on these topics. A useful text is “Apley’s Concise Orthopaedics and Trauma”, and useful information can also be found online, including the online “Wheeless Textbook of Orthopaedics”.
Listed below is a timetable of your weekly activities. You may leave these activities to attend previously organised structured teaching.
Try to get an even share of operating theatre and clinic time. If you plan to attend the operating theatre, then you should “work-up” at least one patient on the list by seeing them pre-operatively in the day surgery unit and taking a history, performing a relevant examination, and reviewing the investigations. You should then present these cases during the operating list to the consultant surgeon (or registrar) in charge of that list, who can then go through the xrays and provide further teaching.
You must attend the Orthopaedic Grand Rounds held every Friday from 0730-0830 on Level 6W. In addition, I will provide you with structured teaching every Wednesday after my clinic, where you will present on one of the “orthopaedic emergencies” topics in an informal manner.
Four weeks is a relatively short period of time that will pass quickly. I will complete your assessments at the end of the term. I’m sure that in the future you will be rewarded by your hard work during your rotation with the Concord Hospital Orthopaedic Department.
Please feel free to contact any one of our team if you have any questions or concerns.
Dr John Trantalis
