On the faculty in Cairns
Associate Professor Cutbush was invited as faculty to the Australian Orthopaedic Association Annual Scientific Meeting in Cairns in October 2016, and gave two talks.
What the AOA Annual Scientific Meeting is
The Australian Orthopaedic Association is the professional body for orthopaedic surgeons in Australia. Among other things it oversees orthopaedic training, provides continuing education for surgeons already in practice, and maintains the national joint replacement registry. Its Annual Scientific Meeting is the main gathering of the membership each year, and it is organised largely around subspecialty sessions, so that surgeons who concentrate on the shoulder, the hip, the spine or the hand spend much of the meeting with colleagues working on the same problems.
Being invited as faculty means being asked by the organising committee to deliver part of the programme rather than simply to attend, usually by presenting on a subject the committee wants covered or by sitting on a panel. A programme is built from invited talks of that kind alongside submitted research papers.
Preventing infection in total joint arthroplasty
The first talk covered the steps surgeons can take to prevent prosthetic joint infection. Infection after a joint replacement is uncommon, but when it occurs it is a serious event: it often requires further surgery, prolonged antibiotic treatment, and it carries a meaningful mortality risk in older patients. That is the reason the subject receives this much attention at surgical meetings. Individual results vary.
Acromioclavicular joint reconstruction
The second talk, "My technique for Acromioclavicular Joint Reconstruction: When and How I do it", described an all-arthroscopic technique for acute AC joint dislocations, previously published in Arthroscopy Techniques.
The acromioclavicular joint is the small joint on the top of the shoulder where the collarbone meets the shoulder blade. It is held in position by ligaments, and a fall onto the point of the shoulder can tear them, which allows the collarbone to separate from the shoulder blade. A reconstruction restores that connection. An all-arthroscopic technique does the work through small portals using a camera, rather than through an open incision. Individual results vary.
Related information
- Our post on arthroscopic ACJ reconstruction
- Our AC joint arthrosis page
- For patients, preventing infection in shoulder replacement surgery
- Our shoulder surgery page