EdHeads and Knee Replacement

 

I’ve attached a link that leads to a website called EdHeads.com. This website contains simulations that allow kids to get real life experiences, such as performing a medical procedure or building something for a targeted sales group. I’m going to talk about the medical procedure simulation.

            To start, the doctor has you sign in, or register, your patient. Then he asks you questions, such as what could be wrong with your patient and all the possible ways to fix it. They also show you an x-ray of the injury or problem, and have you identify which leg or area has the problem. Being able to read x-rays is a key part of the surgical field of medicine. Having to know all the answers to these questions is very similar to how it’s done in the real world.

            Once you have a good understanding of the patient’s diagnosis, you’re ready to prep them. This includes sterilizing the area and dressing the patient. The doctor has you initial which leg you’re operating on. This may seem silly, but it’s actually done to assure the doctor remembers which leg to operate on. In this particular simulation, you’re performing a knee replacement. Not only the knee, but the whole leg needs to be sterilized, and this is done by using a sterilizing liquid and a sponge. Then the whole leg needs to be dressed. The leg is draped with sheets, with a hole cut out of it around the knee to allow operation.

            There are many layers to cut through with the scalpel; the skin, fat, muscle, and tissue. As you cut, you have to use a certain tool to cauterize the blood. This tool simply singes the area of the skin that’s bleeding. This is done to prevent too much blood loss and to keep the area clean and easier to operate on. Once the knee is visible, the leg is then elevated to an angle so that the knee bone is better exposed. Some of the tools used are actually quite interesting. The next tool used is a small saw, which removes and sculpts the bone. It doesn’t take off huge chunks off the bone, but rather shaves it off.

            Then a metal piece is hammered into the bone to act as a new knee. I know, hammering nails into someone’s knee bone doesn’t sound pleasant, and neither does have metal in your knee, but it has to stay in there. After the metal is secure, it’s covered with a cement type mixture and smoothed out to look, act and feel more like a bone. It wouldn’t work if the metal was left alone because of the sharp edges. The cement mixture looks and feels just like a knee bone.

            After the procedure, the patient needs to be sewn back up. The proper medical term is sutured. This means taking a large needle and medical thread and sewing the patient up, layer by layer. The final layer, which is the skin, is usually stapled together to ensure a strong bond and healthy heal.