Week 3: Teagan

This week, I had a good mix of clinical and research experiences. In the OR, I was again able to watch a total knee replacement and a total hip replacement, along with some total knee revisions. The reason these total knee revisions were needed was due to a recent implant recall that caused many of a company's implants to be faulty as a result of improper packaging. This improper packaging degraded the polyethylene in the implants, causing osteolysis in patients' bones. Each of the three knee revisions was slightly different; one was particularly difficult for the surgical team because the bone was especially osteoporotic. This situation is far from being resolved as Dr. Bostrom continues to have pre-operative appointments discussing the need to move forward with revision surgery as a result of this recall with other patients, I saw some of these during my time at the clinic this week. Another experience that I had in the clinic was that I sat in on a consultation for a patient who, through surgical intervention (double hip and knee replacement), would regain the ability to walk. It was inspiring to see the impact that these implants can have on patients' lives. 

On the research side, I completed my mouse training, which now grants me access to the Faxitron imaging equipment. I also purchased all the necessary materials to 3D print the jig that will hold the mouse's limbs during imaging. I also got the mouse femurs that I dissected earlier this summer Faxitron imaged by a member of the lab, and I analyzed them in ImageJ to better scale the design of my device. I also attended a meeting about Qupath and how to effectively utilize that technology as a model for the lab's experimental analysis. The person training us was informative on how the system can be utilized at a lower level as a tool that can only be used by the person who trained the data, vs. optimizing the training and code to be a model whose technology can be used across people in the lab since the programing is more robust. Qupath is a program that could be of potential use to my lab work back in Ithaca as well!