Ashley Cardenas/ Dr. Roger Hartl- Week 2

Early this week I continued to shadow Dr. Hartl in the OR and clinic. Dr. Hartl was away from the hospital on Thursday and Friday for an out-of-country conference. 

On Monday I observed Dr. Hartl perform a left L4/5 discectomy, a L5/S1 surgical laminectomy, discectomy, and transforaminal interbody fusion. Throughout the day I also compiled a data file with patient information for those who had received bone marrow injections. This file contained information regarding the disc level that received the BMAC injection and whether the patient had received a preop MRI, postop MRI, and if patient-recorded outcomes were recorded. This data will be used to evaluate the efficacy of the BMAC injections. Furthermore, the information extracted from this data will be helpful in my studies in which I am characterizing the bioactive components of BMAC. Next week, we will finally be harvesting tissue from a patient undergoing a TLIF.

On Tuesday, I spent the day shadowing Dr. Hartl in the clinic. We are currently putting together a list of patients that are good candidates for our BMAC and IVD tissue studies. Thus, on Tuesday we were making sure to obtain consent from patients. Wednesday morning, I joined the neurosurgical residents' research conference in which residents presented the clinical research they have done. This was very interesting since I had the opportunity to learn more about the types of research questions that are patient-focused and clinically relevant. Wednesday, I also had the opportunity to shadow Dr. Jason Spector in the OR in which I was able to observe a breast reduction surgery. 

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