SICOT e-Newsletter

I am really proud and honoured to have been awarded the 2014 'SICOT meets SICOT' Fellowship at Infanta Leonor Hospital, Madrid, Spain, and Centre for Musculoskeletal Disorders and Trauma, St. George Hospital, Székesfehérvár, Hungary.

Madrid is the capital of Spain and it is a beautiful, clean and big city with its glorious old palaces that exist even today and its amazing advanced infrastructure, and public transportation which cover every place in Madrid making tours very easy and comfortable.

I reached Madrid on 15 January 2014 and my fellowship started on 16 January 2014. At Infanta Leonor Hospital I met Dr Oliver Marin, Director of the fellowship programme at the Orthopaedic and Traumatology Department, who is a very skilled and enterprising hip surgeon. He introduced me to my new colleagues, department, and operating theatre. I started my programme on the first day by assisting Dr Marin in mini-open anterolateral approach for decompression of cam impingement. Knowing that my interest was in wrist arthroscopy, the Head of the Department, Dr Ricardo Larrainzar, came to the operating theatre on the same day to kindly inform me that I was going to the Complutense University to do the wrist arthroscopy cadaveric course. This course was held for three days and was arranged by one of the brilliantly skilled hand surgeons at the hospital, Dr Fernando Corella. It was a very beneficial course for me.


From the fourth day onwards, I started assisting in various surgeries. The schedule normally started at 08:15 with a morning meeting of the department which included discussions on the cases of the previous day and cases to be operated. The operating theatre started at 08:30 and ended at 16:00. I learned a great deal during the time I spent at the outpatient clinic. I assisted in primary hip and knee arthroplasty, knee, ankle and shoulder arthroscopy, many cases of wrist arthroscopy, hand, foot surgery and trauma cases in between. In the afternoon I assisted Dr Corella in various cases of hand surgery and wrist arthroscopy which was really very interesting and beneficial for me. Dr Marin and every fellow at the department were very keen and prompt in responding to my queries. The knowledge gained from this fellowship is enormous and will go a long way in shaping and refining my capabilities and skills.

I would sincerely like to thank Dr Marin and Dr Corella for their kind support throughout this fellowship. Dr Corella is a very kind, intelligent, and hard-working person with many academic credentials to his cap including Professorship at such a young age. His guidance has been of great help to me. I attended with him various surgeries of advanced wrist arthroscopy for example arthroscopic dorsal and volar scapholunate ligamentoplasty, arthroscopic foveal reattachment of TFCC, arthroscopically assisted reduction and internal fixation of scaphoid fracture, arthroscopically assisted open reduction and internal fixation of distal radius fracture, and arthoscopic excision of distal pole scaphoid with limited wrist arthrodesis.

I reached Hungary at midnight of 14 March 2014 after I had finished the two-month fellowship in Spain. Dr Laszlo Bucsi kindly sent a driver to take me from the airport to the hostel of the Centre for Musculoskeletal Disorders and Trauma in Székesfehérvár, which is about 60 km from Budapest. In the morning of the second day, which was a weekend, Dr Bucsi met me at the hostel and guided me about my travel plans. Dr Bucsi is the Head of the Centre for Musculoskeletal Disorders and Trauma and a very skilled and enterprising surgeon in hip and knee arthroplasty. He introduced me to my new colleagues, department, wards and operation theatre. Dr Bucsi informed me about almost everything that I would need there and arranged everything from hospital dress to food for me. The in-campus hostel room was very comfortable and spacious with all the amenities that had been arranged for me by my host and the food served was very good as well.

From the second day onwards, I started assisting in various surgeries. The schedule started at 07:45 with a morning meeting of the department which included discussions on the cases of the previous day and cases to be operated. The operating theatre was open from 08:15 to 16:00, and on Monday it extended to 19:30. I assisted in many cases of primary and revision hip and knee arthroplasty which added a lot to my experience. I also assisted Dr Geza, who is a very skilled arthroscopic surgeon, in many cases of knee, shoulder and ankle arthroscopy and assisted in many cases of BTB and hamstring ACL reconstruction. I would like to thank Dr Geza for helping me attend the National Hungarian Shoulder Arthroscopy Congress during my fellowship period. I would like sincerely to thank the entire team of the orthopaedic department, especially Drs Bucsi, Dobos, Geza and Kovacs for their kind support and hospitality.