The course
Dr Cutbush ran a shoulder arthroscopy surgical course in Brisbane in August 2017 for orthopaedic surgeons.
What shoulder arthroscopy is
Arthroscopy is keyhole surgery on a joint. A camera a few millimetres across is passed into the shoulder through a small incision, and instruments are passed through further small incisions alongside it. The surgeon works from the image on a screen rather than through an open wound. Most shoulder procedures that were once done through an open approach, including rotator cuff repair and repair of the labrum for instability, can now be done arthroscopically or partly arthroscopically. Individual results vary.
Why surgical courses exist
Arthroscopic technique is difficult to learn from a textbook or a video. The surgeon works in a confined space, in three dimensions, while looking at a two dimensional image, and the order in which the steps are done matters a great deal. A course brings a group of surgeons together with instruments, models or cadaveric specimens and an experienced faculty, so that each step can be demonstrated, attempted, and corrected on the spot.
Courses are also where new techniques and new instrumentation are introduced to surgeons already in practice. A surgeon who has completed training has no formal curriculum left to follow, so continuing education of this kind is how methods spread and are scrutinised by the people who will use them.
Related information
See our shoulder surgery page and our other posts on surgical teaching, including the shoulder fracture course. Our pages on rotator cuff repair and shoulder instability describe two of the common reasons for shoulder arthroscopy.