In Kathmandu
The Brisbane Shoulder Fellowship team travelled to Kathmandu, Nepal, for the B&B Shoulder Arthroscopy Course. Faculty and fellows gave presentations and performed live surgeries during the course.
What shoulder arthroscopy is
Arthroscopy is surgery carried out through small portals using a camera and fine instruments, rather than through an open incision. In the shoulder it is used to inspect the joint and the space above it, to repair torn rotator cuff tendons, to reattach a torn labrum after a dislocation, and to release a capsule that has become stiff and contracted. The appeal is that those structures can be reached without dividing the muscle lying over them, and the view obtained inside the joint is better than an open approach allows. The cost is a long learning curve, because the surgeon is working in a confined space, in fluid, from a two-dimensional image on a screen. Individual results vary.
Why live surgery courses
Live surgery is a demanding format for everyone involved, but it conveys things a lecture cannot: the handling of tissue, how a step is recovered when it does not go as planned, and the running commentary on why a decision is being made as it is made. In settings where arthroscopic shoulder surgery is still being established, that transfer of technique has a lasting effect on local capacity.
With thanks to our Nepalese orthopaedic colleagues for their hospitality.
What faculty do at a course of this kind
Faculty at a surgical course are the surgeons invited to teach it. The role covers lectures on the principles and the indications, demonstration of technique in the operating theatre, and time spent with participants afterwards going over what they saw and answering questions. Bringing a fellowship team rather than a single surgeon means the fellows present and assist as well, which is part of how a fellowship year develops teaching skills alongside operative ones.
Related information
- The B&B Shoulder Arthroscopy Course
- The Brisbane Shoulder Fellowship in Kathmandu
- Our shoulder fellowship page
- Our shoulder surgery page