Kansai Medical University – Orthopaedics
Experiences and Benefits
Background
Second only to Osaka University Hospital in the Kansai region, Kansai Medical University Hospital is one of the largest healthcare centres in Japan. KMU hospital has a capacity of around 800 beds, over 9 floors and over 15 operating theatres. The hospital services patients from all over Kansai, all the way up to Gifu prefecture and down to Wakyama. This huge patient population as well as the staggering portfolio of specialties present at the hospital allowed me to experience a huge breadth of different conditions during my elective.
Orthopaedics
I had arranged for an elective in the orthopaedics department. The head of the department Professor Takanori Saito, with over 300 published articles, was a veritable fount of knowledge. He, along with the rest of the team, took me under their wing and taught me so much. A spinal specialist, it was only fitting that KMU be one of, if not the top spinal centre in the country. In fact, it is one of the only places in the world where the XLIF (eXtreme Lateral Interbody Fusion) operation is performed. I was able to scrub into and assist with this operation multiple times. I was able to assist in more common operations as well such as Total Hip arthroplasty with Dr. Oe or Total Knee arthroplasty with Dr. Yamashita. As a tertiary trauma centre, I was also able to assist in many trauma surgeries with Dr. Yagura and Dr. Onoe. Everyone was incredibly eager to teach, and I am very grateful for the many new concepts that were taught to me.
While surgeries were performed daily, I was also able to participate in other activities:
On Tuesdays, I was able to visit a research lab and assist with research where Dr. Park and Dr. Toyama worked on identifying magnetic waves as way to evaluate spinal nerve injury.
On Thursdays, I was able to join the outpatient clinic. These clinics are quite busy, with doctors seeing up to 80 patients a day. This is because Japan does not rely on GPs, and specialist input is sought directly. I was able to watch how these specialists communicated, took their histories and performed their examinations.
I was also able to go to the Japanese Hand Surgery yearly conference, which was an unforgettable experience. It provided me with a view of the cutting-edge technology being used and developed in fields such as hand arthroscopy and prosthetics.
On Fridays, a journal club discussing a paper chosen on the previous Monday was held. This exposed me to newer innovations in orthopaedics and made me rethink the way that things are currently being done. For example, we discussed a paper relating to the use of robotics in hip surgery, specifically the fixation of acetabulum. I had never considered that robotics could be in hip surgery. From that point on, I found out that the university houses a Da Vinci robot in its simulation centre, and I was lucky enough to get some guidance from the trainers present on its uses.
Other experiences
While my main elective was in orthopaedics, I was able to shadow Dr. Onoe, who is double specialised in Emergency Medicine, as such, I was able to join him during the weekends on his shifts. During one of these shifts, a patient arrived by helicopter to be treated. This was a new experience to me, and I was able to appreciate how the handover differs in such critical situations. It was quick, succinct and the patient was whisked away from the helicopter and down to the hospital in the matter of minutes. He went on to make a full recovery thanks to the great care provided by the EM doctors.
Outside of medicine
Hirakata city is located a short train ride away from multiple big cities: Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, and Nara. This meant that I was able to explore most of the big cities in the Kansai region. The student exchange team as well as the orthopaedics were both so welcoming and eager to take me sightseeing and helped me feel right at home. We walked around temples in Kyoto, visited Nara park and explored the hustle and bustle of Osaka. I learned about the history of feudal Japan at Osaka Castle; the different temples and practices at Kyoto and I saw a procession of Buddhist monks at Nara.
Thank you
Lastly, I’d like to thank the Hospital Saturday Fund as well as Swansea University for awarding me this grant. I learned so much during my trip, and I feel so fortunate to have been able to broaden my clinical as well cultural horizons.
