AADO Asian Fellowship Programme 2017
Report from Dr Aravindh Palaniswamy

06 Nov – 03 Dec 2017

It is a report from Dr Aravindh Palaniswamy, one of the successful applicants of AADO Asian Fellowship Programme in Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Hong Kong, who had a visit there on
06 Nov – 03 Dec 2017

I have been a member of this privileged AADO organization from 2014 and am very thankful to the organization for offering me this fellowship.

Our guide and mentor Dr Shen Wan Yiu, a senior consultant in orthopaedics and trauma guided us from day 1 and helped us settle down with the in house accommodation and in arranging the identity and access cards on the first day of our program. Dr Shen is a wonderful gentleman, friendly and a highly skilled passionate teacher. He shared immense knowledge, fine techniques and skill with us. Over the next 4-week period Monday, Tuesday, Thursday's and Friday we attended the dedicated orthopaedics operation theatres.

Under Dr Shens guidance we observed surgeries of a wide variety in ankle fractures, proximal and distal tibia articular fractures, intra-medullary nailing of tibia, olecranon fractures, patella fractures, periprosthetic fractures of hip, per-trochanteric fractures of hip, neck femur fractures. Each case were done with a sound pre-operative planning and executed to the very best possible without any compromise. Special mention requires regarding Dr Shen’s expertise and knowledge about Inter-trochanteric fractures and cemented hip arthroplasty, and was kind enough to share his wisdom and teach us these fine technical skills. On Wednesdays we had grand clinical rounds in the morning with the Trauma and the Sports team headed by esteemed professors and senior consultants, where we participated in healthy, informative discussions and critical analysis of interesting trauma and sports injury patients.

I would like to thank the pelvic-acetabular trauma team of Dr K B Lee and Dr Tim Chui for their passionate teaching. Strict protocols with swift care and team work was highly emphasized in high energy injuries with unstable pelvis right from the emergency department to initial stabilization procedure/containment of the injury with external fixartor, retro peritoneal packing and angio-embolisation . We also observed the state of the art computer navigation assisted pelvi-acetabular surgery. We had enlightening discussions regarding the fracture pattern and were explained in detail about the meticulous planning regarding screw placement and operative procedure.

I like to thank Dr Wilson Lee, Head of the department-orthopaedics and senior consultant division of sports surgery, with whom we had great learning experience about several shoulder and knee arthroscopy procedures. He is a very knowledgeable and patient teacher who meticulously explained to the us regarding the clinical condition and pre-operative planning and walked us through the case intra-operatively. It was treat and humbling to watch these senior consultant’s and professor’s teaching their trainees and resident doctor’s meticulously and patiently and make sure they learn the tricks of trade without cutting any corners.

I thank Ms Natalie our fellowship co-ordinator who was in regular communication with us and helped us in arranging our Visa without any hassle.

I would like to thank the nursing and the administrative staff of Queen Elizabeth Hospital for their hospitality during the entire stay. Hong Kong is a beautiful and truly a world city with a mix of both Asian and Western culture. I’d like to thank my colleague Dr Balaji S, Consultant Orthopaedics Billroth Hospitals, Chennai, who made my stay memorable with whom I explored Hong Kong in the weekends. I enjoyed the Hong Kong Cantonese cuisine in the local restaurant’s and at times had good Indian restaurant options as well to have home food.

We attended the AADO-OLC Basic fracture cadaveric course - Lower limb. I could easily say that it is one of the well organised and useful programs for any resident/trainee who wishes to sharpen his skills and understand orthopaedic trauma surgeries better. Overall the AADO fellowship has helped me reinforce and refresh my knowledge, sharpen my clinical and surgical skills and rekindle my passion in teaching and academics. I sincerely thank the AADO organization and Dr Shen and his team in QEH for the evergreen experiences which would help me evolve as a better surgeon and doctor.

Dr Aravindh Palaniswamy
NRP Hospitals, Coimbatore,
India.