Orthopedic surgery questions

[PROBOSS]

I was just wondering, what is the lifestyle like? Do you tend to do the same surgery over and over or is their variety? And also, do you get the chance to do life saving procedures?

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[PROBOSS]

Also any general info, good websites, or good YouTube surgery videos would also be appreciated

 

[skiz knot]

I was just wondering, what is the lifestyle like?

Depends on your subspecialty, your group, and your willingness to work. Overall ortho has a pretty good lifestyle with the exception of certain traumatologists, spine surgeons that do trauma, and hand surgeons. That is not to say you can't have an excellent lifestyle in one of those subspecialties, especially if you have residents/fellows.

Do you tend to do the same surgery over and over or is there variety? And also, do you get the chance to do life saving procedures?

Again, depends. You can have a huge amount of variety in your practice if you want, or you can specialize all the way down to being a right lateral meniscus surgeon only. Most orthopods fit somewhere in the middle, doing total joints, scopes, carpal tunnels, fractures, etc...

Orthopaedic traumatologists will sometimes perform true "life-saving" interventions, but to be honest, most orthopods don't want to be in the "life-saving" business. We save lifestyles.

 

[PROBOSS]

Thank you!

 

[Magillicutty]

Depends on your subspecialty, your group, and your willingness to work. Overall ortho has a pretty good lifestyle with the exception of certain traumatologists, spine surgeons that do trauma, and hand surgeons. That is not to say you can't have an excellent lifestyle in one of those subspecialties, especially if you have residents/fellows.


Again, depends. You can have a huge amount of variety in your practice if you want, or you can specialize all the way down to being a right lateral meniscus surgeon only. Most orthopods fit somewhere in the middle, doing total joints, scopes, carpal tunnels, fractures, etc...

Orthopaedic traumatologists will sometimes perform true "life-saving" interventions, but to be honest, most orthopods don't want to be in the "life-saving" business. We save lifestyles.

What is it about hand that made you group it with the others that do trauma, skiz knot?

 

[skiz knot]

What is it about hand that made you group it with the others that do trauma, skiz knot?

People tend to cut off their fingers at inconvenient times.

 

[PROBOSS]

Q.What made you categorize hand with trauma surgery?
A.People tend to cut off their fingers at inconvenient times

 

[PROBOSS]

Hilarious

 

[PROBOSS]

I know ortho trauma surgeons work long hours, but what kind of shifts are they? Like 24 on 24 off?

 

[skiz knot]

I know ortho trauma surgeons work long hours, but what kind of shifts are they? Like 24 on 24 off?

That depends on the group you join. That would be an atypical call schedule.

 

[skiz knot]

I know ortho trauma surgeons work long hours, but what kind of shifts are they? Like 24 on 24 off?

That depends on the group you join. That would be an atypical call schedule.

 

[PROBOSS]

What about at a medium sized hospital?

 

[Buckeye(OH)]

I do a lot of moonlighting. Inevitably its a f'ing hand consult in a prisoner that tried to cut his wrist with some blunt ass object. Never ****ing fails. I hate hand.

Im doing a peds fellowship. Tremendous variety. Great lifestyle.

 

[Magillicutty]

People tend to cut off their fingers at inconvenient times.

seems like there's never a good time to cut your finger off.

 

[KinasePro]

I do a lot of moonlighting. Inevitably its a f'ing hand consult in a prisoner that tried to cut his wrist with some blunt ass object. Never ****ing fails. I hate hand.

Im doing a peds fellowship. Tremendous variety. Great lifestyle.

Ped's seems like an awesome fellowship option.

What's the lifestyle like in adult recon? I know its very high volume and clinic is brutal, I'm just curious what the day-day is like.

What about spine?

 

[non trad dad]

All the surgeries performed is for good cause and that means more for the person on whom or from his point of view, So it is what you are trying to learn over here. Good day.

________________________________________________________________________
Safer and successful orthopedic surgeries by Orthopedic surgeon in orange county

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[determined1985]

I do a lot of moonlighting. Inevitably its a f'ing hand consult in a prisoner that tried to cut his wrist with some blunt ass object. Never ****ing fails. I hate hand.

Im doing a peds fellowship. Tremendous variety. Great lifestyle.

Hey BuckEye(OH)... saw that you said peds ortho has a great lifestyle. I'm applying for ortho right now, with hopes to do a peds fellowship, as well. Can you please elaborate as to what kind of lifestyle we should expect? Thanks, I really appreciate it.

 

[GAdoc]

I agree with everything that's been said - what separates ortho from other surgical specialties is the relative lack of "true emergencies" - choosing ortho doesn't mean less call, but it may mean less work while on call. Again, it's very dependant on where you practice and what your specialty is. A lot of the more recent literature suggests that most clean, open fractures can wait until morning. In one sentence, I think orthopods have more control over how busy they are than, say, a general surgeon or neurosurgeon. It's not uncommon to find ortho guys that work all the time but you'll find (no matter what they say) that they do it by choice. Likewise, you'll find guys (usually older, senior partners) who don't take much call, have sweet chip-shot line-ups three days a week, and are on the golf course by 4pm.

As far as variety, I can't think of a field that offers more - we have to have a greater mastery of anatomy than any other specialty because we routinely operate on every part of the body. Ortho is following the lead of other surgical specialties and becoming more sub-specialized, but we're much more resistant to it and there are still many underserved areas in need of guys willing to do it all.

I'm a PGY-3 in Ohio, but when I'm done I plan to head back to my home state of GA and be a generalist. Or, I may do peds because it is the last sub-specialty that is truly "general" - those guys operate on everything.

For those of you considering your career - choose carefully. Make a choice based on what you love. Don't just look at the "cool" stuff we do - every specialty has it's sexy stuff. Look at what you're going to be doing on call at 2am and make sure you can tolerate it for five years (i.e. finger replants).