Zimmer Biomet Trauma Travelling Fellowship to Ludwigshafen

Daniel Burchette

The Berufsgenossenschaftliche Unfallklinik (BG Klinik) Ludwigshafen is a dedicated trauma, orthopaedic and plastic surgery hospital and Level 1 trauma centre in the Rhineland-Palatine region of Germany. It forms part of the BGU group of trauma hospitals that are nationally renowned for their musculoskeletal trauma care.

I was fortunate to spend a six-week BOA / Zimmer Biomet Travelling Trauma Fellowship with their acute traumatology team focussing on their extensive experience of intraoperative crosssectional imaging, which is a topic I have long been interested in, but not exposed to in my UK training.

The majority of the six-week attachment was spent in the operating theatre suite with the acute traumatology team, observing and assisting in a wide range of acute trauma cases. During this time I observed and assisted in a broad range of extremity trauma operating, picking up ‘tips and tricks’ from their expert traumatology team and learning how they integrate 3D imaging into their routine theatre practice. Applied to all periarticular fractures in this institution, the concept is simple: fix the fracture as per usual using fluoroscopy, before performing a scan to critically analyse the reduction, with a readiness and appetite to start again if required.

Over the course of the fellowship the arguments were convincing; on a few occasions a seemingly good reduction on fluoroscopy was betrayed on scan, leading to intraoperative revisions of the fixation.

I wish to thank the Head of the Acute Traumatology team, Dr Jochen Franke and his Oberarzt colleagues, Dr Benedict Swartman and Ann-Kathrin Blessing for their kind hospitality throughout my stay and taking the time to demonstrate and involve me in their work.

Finally, I am supremely grateful to the British Orthopaedic Association and Zimmer Biomet for funding this opportunity.