You heard about orthopedics but you didn’t actually grasp its inner workings. It is time to know about orthopedic and its surgeons for later reference. Basically, orthopedics is a medical specialty that gives attention to injuries and diseases of the body’s musculoskeletal system.
The musculoskeletal system is a complex one, which involves your bones, ligaments, joints, muscles, tendons, and nerves. The system is crucial in allowing you to move and work. The specialists who diagnose, treat and prevent injuries and disorders are called the orthopedic surgeon.
There are many orthopedic surgeons in Australia, which will give you an idea of how competitive is orthopedic surgery. However, you need to find the best orthopedic surgeon melbourne. Here are some things that you need to know about orthopedic surgeons:
The surgeon’s scope of work
When it comes to musculoskeletal problems, an orthopedic surgeon performs:
• Diagnosis: this involves the identification of your injury or disorder.
• Treatment: this includes medication, exercise, surgery, casting or other options.
• Rehabilitation: this involves recommending physical therapy or exercises that can
restore the movement, strength, and function of the affected area.
• Prevention: with the treatment plans, prevention of injury is possible as well as slowing the progression of the disease.
While orthopedic surgeons are familiar with the aspects of the musculoskeletal system, many choose to specialise in particular areas like the spine, shoulder, foot and ankle, hip or knee and hand. Some also specialise in trauma, sports medicine or pediatrics.
What to expect for your first visit
On your first visit, the surgeon will record the history of your injury or illness then conduct a physical examination. This may be followed by laboratory studies like blood tests and x-rays. After these, the surgeon will discuss your diagnosis and help you choose the best treatment plan so you can continue to live an active life.
What about the treatments?
The treatments can be non-surgical or surgical. Non-surgical treatment means treating musculoskeletal conditions without surgery through exercise, medication or other rehabilitative therapies. However, the surgeon will recommend surgery if you do not respond to non-surgical treatments. Surgical treatments include:
• Fusion: this is a “welding” process in which the bones are fused together with
internal devices and bone grafts. It will eventually heal into a single solid bone.
• Arthroscopy: this procedure utilises cameras and equipment to diagnose and treat problems especially inside the joint.
• Internal fixation: this is a method that can hold the broken pieces of bone in its right place with the help of metal plates, screws or pins while the bone is recovering.
• Joint replacement: joint replacement can be partial, total or revision. This procedure involves the removal and replacement of a damaged joint using the artificial joint, which is called prosthesis.
• Soft tissue repair: this procedure involves fixing of soft tissue like torn ligaments or tendons.
• Osteotomy: this procedure involves correcting the bone deformity through cutting and repositioning the specific bone.
With more than 300 bones and joints in the body, you will experience discomfort and pain at some point in your life. If you tend to do more physical activity, your risk is higher. For any discomfort and pain, it is important that you check with your orthopedic surgeon immediately.
