Photoclubalpha

Well I finally finished sorting and processing the images from my OR shoot. This was my facilities first Anterior Approach Hip Replacement. This way is much less invasive than the traditional lateral approach. The large muscles of the thigh are moved out of the way instead of being cut through. This lessens recovery time. A co-worker of mine had this surgery at another hospital, and he was up and walking with help 2 hours later!!.

It was being satellite broadcast to a sister hospital in Florida. While he was operating, the surgeon, Dr. Charles Toulson was talking to the doctors in Florida. Unfortunately I was unable to talk to him or the OR crew while they were working. I had to catch some shots when the opening came. On the other hand, the studio lights that the camera crew brought enabled me to shoot at ISO 200-400. Most of the shots are tame with the exception of the last shot. It is a picture of the open incision. I will keep it in a link, so that no one who doesn't want to see it won't accidentally. Thanks, John

Here are some shots of the set up of the room. The large table in the middle of the of the OR is the key to this operation. It enables the patients leg to be lowered and rotated to inhuman angles. At one point the doctor called for 130 degrees of external rotation. (Imagine your foot pointing forward being 0 degrees. Then try to rotate your foot outward 130 degrees without moving your hips!) He did this after the femur (thigh bone) had been cut.

The marketing director wanted some setup shots, and shots with the camera crew visible. After I met those requirements, I was free to shoot what I wanted. I want to do this again, so that I can get better shots of the actual work.

Some of the procedure. CAUTION: SOME BLOOD!hiccup!!! The hip replacement has 3 main parts, the ball and
stem, and the socket. The stem goes into the femur, and the ball goes on top of that. The socket is placed into the pelvis, after it has been cleaned out.

Some more from the operation. The white ball on the end of the drill is the original femoral head. The last image in this series is what the new hip looks like under X-Ray. At this point the doctor is just about ready to sew it all up.

A couple more.

Finally, I made a little money, and we got some great baseball tickets to a local minor league team, but the most important thing is that I am starting to get some photographic work for the marketing department, and they put one of my photos in the local paper. It's not much, but its cool. I hope you enjoyed, and that nobody was grossed out or offended. John. Here is the link to the incision. http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnleblan ... 968418221/

Hi John,

Nice series, always interesting to see what others do for a living. Also good to see where my hard work goes - I have been a chief biomedical scientist in Haematology for many years, my speciality is blood coagulation, but on nightshift also crossmatch the blood for operations etc.

Best wishes

Paul

Good work John. And all my respect to Dr. Charles Toulson and specially his staff, who usually do the big part and never get credit/praise...

Hi John - I think the images are great and you should be justifiably proud. I especially like the WA shots. It is very interesting to see really good quality images from a theatre for those of use that never visit one (as an observer anyway!). Video from TV shows etc. don't come close. The full head masks were a bit of a shock - is that a new thing? Didn't see those on ER . The pictures were no where near as "icky" as I feared they might be so I'm looking forward to more now.

Grats on being published! These pictures really are tops. I like the sixth in the series, and then those of the stacks of cans of bone saws and whatnot. Gruesome.

Birma- That type of gear is relatively common in orthopaedic cases especially total hip replacements. They are.... messy..... Note the power tools. (the saw especially). It was very cool to see up close. My 10-20 got quite a bit of use that day.
Kevin-Thanks! #6 was my favorite of all the shots I took as well. Hopefully I will get another opportunity to shoot in the OR again soon.... John

Good series John. I'm glad you also got paid for your work!

Dusty

Thanks for posting. Very interesting and not something we normally see here.

Well I finally 'had a look' and was pleasently surprised that they weren't as gruesome as I thought they would be. The one walking away with the ball skewered by something was a little sus but all good shots for sure.
Greg