AADO Asian Fellowship Programme 2012
Final Report from Dr Rajesh Kumar
26 November – 21 December 2012

It is a report from Dr Rajesh Kumar, one of the successful applicants of AADO Asian Fellowship Programme in Queen Elizabeth Hospital at Hong Kong, who had a visit there on 26 November – 21 December 2012.

I take immense pleasure to record my experience with four week AADO fellowship at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hongkong. Throughout my fellowship period, everything was well arranged. We had four OT days and one OPD day. On every OT day, we used to have a class at 8:00 AM and we discuss about the cases posted for that day.  Intertrochantric fracture femur was the most common case we saw in the OT, followed by ankle fractures. There used to be two to three OT tables per day, we were lucky to encounter few pelvic fractures and revision hip surgeries. The best part I liked about their planning is that, they always follow the literature. And they have enough evidence to show why they used a specific technique for fracture fixation. We used to have discussion about the post-operative cases, like how good the reduction is or what went wrong. Even in his busy schedule Dr. Shen allotted time for us to discuss about the cases. We saw one revision total hip replacement, and learnt how to do impaction grafting for the femur. Also we learnt the importance of fixation of the posterior malleoli for the stability of the syndesmosis. And also we learnt the importance of intra-operative 3D-CT for the evaluation of the syndesmotic reduction. Dr. Shen showed us many pictures were radiograph showed a good reduction of syndesmosis whereas CT scan showed a malreduced syndesmosis. Intra-operatively he showed us how to test the stability of the syndesmosis and also the tricks in reduction of the syndesmosis. During our OPD days we used to read a lot of power point presentation with literature review about the cases operated in Queen Elizabeth Hospital, and have a brief discussion about it later on. Dr. Shen used to show us the rare cases like bisphosphonate induced fractures and also teach us about the radiological features which we should look  for.

As I said previously the whole program was well planned. Since this was my first trip abroad I was a bit afraid to come, but AADO had really made it easier. They gave a power point about how to arrive, which train to travel and even the cost it will take. The only problem i faced was the language, most of them do not understand English. But the other staff in the hostel or in the office were very helpful. We were provided with a micro oven, washing machine and dryer, so it was like a home. And also the internet facilities were available in the hostel, which made our stay very comfortable.

In our free time we used to have lots of fun, travelled all round the Hongkong and saw many places. We went to wet land park, giant budha, jumbo kingdom and many places. You can take the map and guide from the airport which is freely availalable in the “Hongkong tourism” or you can get it from the harbour city near our hospital. Once you know about the MTR and if have the map you can go around any place in hongkong. Do not purchase any map from shops, because most of the were not in English. If you want to buy something from hongkong then you can go to temple street, but have to bargain a lot. They used to sell things at double or triple the original rate, so beware.

Last but not the least I should thank my colleagues, consultants and my HOD for giving me such an opportunity to visit hongkong. And also thank my family and the almighty, had been a great support to finish my fellowship successfully. Thank you.

Dr Rajesh Kumar