December 14, 2011
School of Medicine, Kochi
 

“What are the six Ps of critical limb ischemia?”
 

“Pain, pallor, paralysis, pulselessness, paresthesia and poikilothermia,” answered final-year MBBS students of the Amrita School of Medicine, Anand Srinivasan and Siddharth Patanwar.
 

These students were participating in the All India Surgery Quiz 2011, at the Government Medical College, Thrissur. Not only did they correctly remember the six parameters used for diagnosing the disease, they also provided answers to several other questions asked.
 

“Who performed the first coronary artery bypass graft surgery?” the students were asked.
 

“David Sabiston,” they answered confidently.
 

“Name the 4 Ts of tension pneumothorax,” was the next question.
 

“Tachypnea, tachycardia, tracheal shift and tympanic note,” recalled the students.
 

As the quiz proceeded, the students were questioned on several aspects of surgical anatomy, trauma, minimally invasive procedures and imaging techniques.
 

The questions were asked by Dr. Clement S. Rajan, the noted national-level quiz master.
 

The Amrita students were also able to correctly locate the headquarters of the Association of Surgeons of India at Chennai.
 

A total of 50 teams competed in the contest and only 6 teams made it to the quiz finals.
 

The Amrita team was the only one from a private medical college that qualified to participate in the quiz finals. Other teams represented Government Medical College, Trivandrum; Government Medical College, Thrissur and Government Medical College, Calicut.
 

After gruelling contest rounds, the Amrita team finally emerged victorious, beating the other 5 finalists.
 

The winners received award trophies and merit certificates.
 

“It was a good learning experience to have participated in a quiz of such stature,” the two students shared later.
 

“We thank our professors and surgeons at Amrita, without whose teaching none of this would have been possible,” they noted.