May 27, 2011
School of Medicine, Kochi
 

The Department of Orthopedics at the Amrita School of Medicine conducted a two-day workshop on the basic principles and management of fractures during May 21 – 22, 2011.
 

Postgraduate trainees from many hospitals in and around Kerala attended the workshop.
 

“At Amrita, we encounter many trauma cases every day,” stated Dr. V. K. Bhaskaran, Professor and Head of the Department of Orthopedics at Amrita, in his inaugural note.
 

“Trauma is an important area of concentration for the orthopedic surgeon,” he added. “This basic level course will be very useful for budding orthopedicians.”
 

Dr. Prathapan Nair, Principal, Amrita School of Medicine also addressed the gathering.
 

“Trauma surgery is becoming more and more important nowadays because of the increasing incidence of traffic accidents,” he said. “We are specialists in arthroplasties and spine surgeries but as a general orthopedic surgeon we are expected to deal with these trauma cases. Every orthopedic surgeon at some stage will have to work on traumas. Your skills will save lives.”
 

The two-day workshop included lectures, case discussions and hands-on exercises. Lectures covered topics such as basic principles and fracture management, diaphyseal fractures, simple intra-articular fractures, complex intra-articular fractures and proximal femoral fractures.
 

Dr. V. K. Bhaskaran from AO, a medically guided nonprofit organization led by an international group of surgeons specialized in the treatment of trauma and disorders of the musculoskeletal system, also spoke.
 

“Life is movement and movement is life. Nature has its own devices and does wonderful things for us. A fracture can unite even without management or treatment,” he said.
 

“Our four commandments are anatomical reduction, rigid fixation, preservation of blood supply and early active mobilization,” he further explained.
 

“The healing of a fracture is one of the most remarkable of all the repair processes in the body,” noted Dr. Gopakumar, Professor in the Department of Orthopedics at Government Medical College, Trivandrum.
 

“This results not in a scar but in the actual reconstitution of the injured tissue. In all other tissues in the body, wound heals by scar formation. Only in the bone, wound heals by producing bone itself.”
 

Over the two days, participants had the opportunity to learn many such remarkable facts.
 

“The course was a rich mix of theory and practice in fracture management,” remarked Dr. Sabarish Nair, postgraduate trainee, who participated. “We learned all that is current and contemporary.”