Course Topics

The Orthopedic Trauma Basic Principles Course covers the following topics:

• Course Introduction
• Bone fracture mechanisms
• Types of bone fractures
• Fracture displacement patterns and fracture description
• Bone healing process
• Fractures healing outcomes
• Trauma management using ATLS
• History taking and examination in orthopedic trauma
• Orthopedic X-ray interpretation basics
• Soft tissue injuries
• Closed fracture treatment
• Gustilo Anderson classification of open fractures
• Open fractures treatment
• Stress fractures
• Pathological fractures
• Growth plate fractures
• Compartment syndrome
• Complication of fractures
• Joint injuries

Key Definitions

Before delving into the course content, it’s essential to grasp some fundamental definitions:

• Orthopedic Trauma: Injuries involving bones, joints, ligaments, and tendons resulting from falls, motor vehicle accidents, and sports-related injuries. It includes both medical and surgical management.
• Fracture: A break or crack in the continuity of the bone, leading to pain, swelling, deformity, instability, altered sensation, and loss of function.
• Ligament: Connects a bone with another bone.
  Tendon: Connects muscles to bones.
• Dislocation: Occurs when a bone is displaced from its normal position within a joint due to ligament injury.
• Subluxation: Partial dislocation of a bone within its joint.
• Sprain: Injury to a ligament.
• Strain: Injury to a tendon or muscle.

Bone Types

Before going into the course, it is also important to understand the bone types:

• Cortical Bone: Also known as compact bone. Dense and strong, found in the outer layer of long bone shafts and flat bones (skull, ribs, pelvis). It makes up 80% of the adult skeleton and heals more slowly than cancellous bone.
• Cancellous Bone: Also called trabecular or spongy bone. Weaker, found at the ends of long bones, vertebral bodies, and inner layers of skull/ribs/pelvis. It makes up 20% of the adult skeleton and heals faster than cortical bone.