Abdelkafy Report to AGA[1]

Report on the AGA-Aircast-Pittsburgh 6 weeks Clinical
Fellowship in the Orthopaedic Surgery Department
University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
From May 10th to June 21st 2009
Host: Prof. Dr. Freddie H. Fu, M.D., D. Sc. (Hon), D.Ps. (Hon)
Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery Department, University of Pittsburgh.
Pittsburgh PA, USA
Fellow: Dr. Ashraf Abdelkafy, M.D.
Consultant and Lecturer of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology
Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University
Ismailia, Egypt
First of all, I would like to express my deep gratitude to the AGA Board for selecting me
to participate in this highly valuable fellowship. Also, I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Fu
for his great care and support and the Aircast Company for their generosity. Last but not
least, I would like to thank Mrs. Eva Maria-Pinz (AGA Secretary) for her help.
Fellowship planning:
Planning started with contacting Mrs. Lisa Arrisher-Brown, the assistant of Prof.
Fu (she is very friendly and helpful). Always better to contact her by phone. Her
phone number is 0014126053265. Mrs. Arrisher-Brown provided me with all the
papers needed to obtain the entry visa to the US.
Regarding accommodation, I had a friend in Pitt. who searched for a suitable
accommodation for me through http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ and he found a
reasonable one near his apartment.
The difficulty of the accommodation in Pitt. is that most of the leases (rent deals
or rent contracts) are for long periods (12 months and more) and it is difficult to
find a lease for 6 weeks. You can search for what they call a SUBLEASE which
is someone who has a lease and is leaving his apartment for a certain period that
matches the period you wish to rent in and then you can rent from him, this is
sublease. The website http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/ is famous for this.
Fellowship program:
1- Operations at Southside Hospital: Prof. Fu operates always on Tuesday (we have
to be there at 7 a.m.) where he performs many primary and revision double bundle
ACL reconstructions with a comprehensive keen explanations and discussions to
all the fellows attending his surgeries. Dr. Harner is a very talented knee surgeon,
he operates on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday where he performs a broad
spectrum of knee surgeries like anatomical single bundle ACL recons., meniscus
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root repair, PCL recons., posterolateral corner reconstruction, meniscal
transplantation, meniscal repair, unicompartmental Knee replacement and TKR.
Dr. Rodosky is a very gifted shoulder arthroscopy surgeon; he usually operates
most days of the week. Dr. Wright operates a very interesting hip arthroscopy
cases on Tuesday. Also, I watched some ankle arthroscopy cases.
With Prof. Fu in Southside Hospital
Observing Prof. Fu operating a case of
Primary Double Bundle ACL Recons.
2- Sports Medicine meetings: this is a weekly meeting on Wednesdays that starts at
6 a.m. where a talk about subject in sports medicine takes place and some case
presentations.
3- Grand Rounds: Starts at 7 a.m. on Wednesday where some lectures or research
presentations are given on various topics in orthopaedic surgery and orthopaedic
traumatology.
4- ACL meetings: usually on Wednesday, but its exact time and date usually
changes every week according to the schedule of Prof. Fu. It is a very valuable
and interesting meeting where Prof. Fu, the directors of the different labs. and the
fellows attend. Presentations about the different ongoing researches take place.
Journal club where discussions of some newly published ACL papers in different
journals chosen by Prof. Fu take place in the same meeting.
ACL meeting
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5- Research labs.: Prof. Fu’s fellows work in many research labs. and I had the
opportunity to visit the different labs.
6- Sports center: a very fancy sports center where Prof. Fu, Dr. Harner and other
surgeons have their outpatient clinics to meet the patients. Also, in this center the
physiotherapy protocols are applied to patients. The patients are the class of
professional famous football, baseball, ice hockey…..etc. players.
Social events:
Many nice social events were held and I was lucky to attend the 100 years
anniversary celebration of the Orthopaedic Surgery Department University of
Pittsburgh.
100 years anniversary of the Orthopaedic Surgery
Dept., University of Pittsburgh
Barbecue with Prof. Fu’s fellows
Others:
1- Transportations: I usually have been using the buses except on Tuesday and
Wednesday when we have to go very early to the Prof. Fu’s operations (7 a.m.) or
to the Sports Medicine meeting (6 a.m.) as some of the fellows whom had cars
and where living near my apartment always were very kind to offer me a lift in
the morning, because the bus schedules are not accurate and many delays occur.
2- It is better to ask Mrs. Arrisher-Brown for your certificate of attendance about two
weeks to ten days before you leave because she has to order a very fancy plaque
made from wood with a nice picture of Pitt. and signed by Prof. Fu.
3- Pittsburgh is a very nice and calm city with nice places for sightseeing, example:
Mount Washington and Falling Water.
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Mount Washington Pittsburgh
Finally, I would like to say that this fellowship was great and again many many thanks to
the AGA Board, Prof. Fu and the Aircast Company.
Dr. Ashraf Abdelkafy, M.D.
Consultant and Lecturer of Orthopaedic Surgery and Traumatology
Faculty of Medicine, Suez Canal University
41522, Circular Road,
Ismailia, Egypt.
Emails: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]
Ismailia 27-6-2009
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