PM&R Qs

[internist88]

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Hi,

I was wondering if you guys could answer a few PM&R questions:

1. I think that PM&R would be a good fit for me because they deal with sports injuries from what I hear. But my question is, do they deal with the bones a lot because I really like learning about the bones so far? Otherwise if they don't, what is a good speciality, besides orthopaedic surgery since thats impossible to get, that deals with bones? Is there an internal medicine version of orthopaedic surgery (ie cardiology is the internal med version of cardiac surgery in a way)?

2. Do physiatrists have specialities within their field? If so, what are some examples, and also, do they have any invasive or interesting procedures within their specialities (I don't really want to be a GP in any field)?

I know you are wondering why I'm on this forum given my sn, but I'm just trying to find out some more about other specialities as well. So please answer my questions.

thanks

 

[DOctorJay]

almost all of your questions can be answered by spending some time on this forum browsing previous threads. if you like interventional things you should also take a look at the Pain Medicine forum, an area that many physiatrists go into.

i think once you look around a bit more pm&r will look even more appealing to you.

J

 

[rehab_sports_dr]

PM+R is a great specialty for addressing bone pathology. I would first question, however, what you mean by "bones." We are not a specialty that sets a lot of fractures, for example. However, we see a lot of stress fractures, osteoporosis, apophysites, along with a tremendous volume of soft tissue pathology.

For example, today 16 residents and fellows from RIC worked at the Chicago Marathon, which was a great experience. I felt extremely comfortable with the management of the athletes coming into the medical tent. I felt that my musculoskeletal exam was certainly at the level, if not better, than that of the non-physiatrist attendings who were also working the tent.

For the medical issues, I also felt that I was very comfortable handling the medical issues. In part, though, that was because I just spent the 4 prior days attending the Science and Medicine of the Marathon course, which was a state of the art course that was held for the first time in 30 years. Because I attended that course, I was up on all of the most current literature on things like fluid and cardiac management.

We worked pretty closely with some of the athletic trainers in the tent. One of them came up to me afterward and asked about the specialty of PM+R, since she was impressed with our approach to the athlete. That was a nice complement, and I think it spoke well to the type of training we get.