Carlos Urrea/ Dr. Sabrina Strickland: Week 7

 This week I worked msotly on my research project and only shadowed one day in the clinic.

On Monday, I worked with Kalle and Tyler to prepare a cadaver knee specimen for testing later in the week. It was interesting to see how the knee is prepared to undergo mechanical testing and the reasoning behind removing certain tissues for ease of handling later on. Most of the muscles were removed from the tissue and the bones were cut to match the length of the testing frame. the bone were later potted in epoxy to ensure fitting into the frame.

On Tuesday, I presented to the immersion cohort about my work during the summer, including both the research work and the clinic shadowing. After the presentation, we performed bio mechanical testing of the intact sample and checked that everything was working so we could continue with the rest of the conditions later during the week.

On Wednesday, I shadowed Dr. Strickland in the clinic were I saw two patella fractures but the patients had very different behaviors in the clinic. One of them was walking in crutches and could not tolerate the pain of the fracture. Surgery with a trauma surgeon was scheduled for Friday and patella reconstruction was started. On the other case, the person could not tell they had a fracture and just reported discomfort and popping on the middle of the knee. After looking at the X-ray, we could see the patient fractured their patella, however, since he was able to walk and did not report excessive pain, Dr. Strickland ordered an MRI and will follow-up with the patient on the course of action after receiving the imaging. 

On Thursday, we tested the knee specimen on the gait simulator with an osteotomy, a defect, an anatomical repair and a non anatomical repair of the posteriomedial meniscal root. It was interesting to troubleshoot different issues throughout the day and being able to collect all the data for the specimen. I appreciated how engineers and clinicians collaborate and help each other during biomedical research projects.

This Friday, I will attend Dr Prince Entrepreneurship lecture and the Radiology Reception.

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