What Does An Orthopedic Surgeon Do?

Orthopedic Surgeons do a lot for people who are hurting, whether it is a sport’s injury, an older person who needs their knee replaced, or a problem with tendons, muscles, ligaments, nerves, or even various bone problems and skin. It is a specialty that covers the musculoskeletal system of the body, and provides help with injuries, deformities and degenerative diseases of hands, feet, spine, knees, shoulders, and elbows. They also deal with infections, tumors, trauma, and metabolic problems. Their main purpose is to bring back function that has been lost because of an injury or from a disease that has damaged these areas. They also work with other doctors and do consultations which involve a lot of emergency room work usually in multiple injury cases. They work with people in all age brackets.

There is a vast area in orthopedics but they mostly work with fixing tears and pulled muscles and tendons, sprains and strains of all sorts, injured muscles and tendons, dislocated and broken bones (fractures), and various back problems. Advances have also been made in the area of degenerative joint diseases in that they can now replace them with prosthetic joints. There are also new visual instruments that help with diagnoses and surgery especially in internal joints. There have been improvements in micro surgery, new techniques, and better equipment.

Some orthopedic surgeons have a specialization that they work in such as the back, hip, or another specialties. One third of these doctors are general orthopedic surgeons, and one third are specialists, the other third are general orthopedic surgeons with a particular interest in a specific area but will work on anything needed and a lot of these doctors work with sports teams.

To become an orthopedic surgeon, you must have four years of college, four years of medical school, and five years of graduate medical school. Then you must do four years of training in orthopedic surgery, and one year of training in a broad licensed residency program, some schools require two years of general surgery before three years of clinical orthopedic study.