On November 29, 2022, Dr. James Slauterbeck, an orthopedic surgeon came and spoke to our class about the OR or "operating room" aspect of an open tib/fib fracture. He then explained the procedure that will be performed in the surgery to repair Connor's injuries. First, the injury site will be cleaned with soap, water, and a scrub brush to truly clean all the dirt and grime from the football field that couldn't be done while Connor was awake due to pain, dead muscle and skin edges and then cut away and rinsed with roughly 9 liters of saline, the bones are then realigned and an external fixator is used to prevent infection and take pressure off the bone.
An external fixator is a surgical treatment where rods are screwed into the bone and exit the body to be attached to a stabilizing structure on the outside of the body, but this is not the only surgical device that can be used to heal fractures in the lower leg. A plate although was not the best option for this open fracture due to bacteria exposure, but a great option for a closed wound as it can apply tension and take up the majority of pressure applied to the wound. A Rod goes into a hole created in the patella tendon and places load on the bone in order to stimulate healing, this however is a permanent solution unless taken out usually in children or special adult cases.
This surgery is estimated to last roughly 1-2 hours with cleaning, anesthesia, and the installation of the fixation device which usually takes only 15-30 minutes.
Dr. Slauterbeck also explained how to express the location of a fracture to another physician on the phone by a percentage of displacement, the proximal (top) and distal (bottom) parts of the bone and their relation to each other after a traumatic injury.
He ended his lecture with an extremely liberating speech about his career in orthopedics and the impact that it has made on his life as well as others. He believes he has never gone to "work" a day in his life due to the pure joy that this career brings him and the opportunity to help others. As an orthopedic surgeon of his specialty, Dr. Slauterbeck primarily relocates joints and fixes ligaments. He exclaimed that as an orthopedic surgeon, he works with people from "womb to tomb," such as clubfoot from birth to broken hips in old age. He also shared an extremely interesting statistic that 90% of his field is dominated by white men, with only 10% of white female orthopedic surgeons and 1% being people of color. He left us with the remark that "everyone has the opportunity to become an orthopedic surgeon," and to spread racial equality and love their career just as much as he does!
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