Week two of immersion was quiet for me, as my clinician mentor was out of town. I was able to see a few more steps of the RT-PCR process and I attended several research meetings. I was also able to observe a medical student who was performing immunohistochemistry on tibia samples from the same mouse fracture study that I am learning RT-PCR for. He was performing serial stains with different dilutions of two antibodies of interest: sclerostin and B-catenin. It was interesting to see this process, as it is another method I will use in my own research at Cornell.
On the clinical side, the Adult Reconstruction and Joint Replacement grand rounds this week was on partial knee replacements, namely unicompartmental and patellofemoral replacements. Dr. Boettner discussed these two surgeries, which are certainly less common than total knee replacement. One reason these are less common is that it is rare that only one compartment of the knee is affected by arthritis. There are three compartments to the knee joint: one compartment for each of the condyles that make up the femoral-tibial joint and one compartment between the patella and the femur. Usually arthritis effects all three compartments, thus the usual need for a total knee replacement. Unicompartmental replacements are used when only one of the condyles has arthritic changes, and a patellofemoral replacement is used when the condyles are intact but there is wear between the patella and femur. I also spoke with another surgeon this week, Dr. Parks, who will be happy to have me observe some surgeries with him next week.
No comments:
Post a Comment