Firstly I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Pushpinder Bajaj, Dr. Lalit Maini, Dr. IPS Oberoi, Dr. Raju Eswaran and the entire ISKSAA team for providing me the opportunity to learn and develop my knowledge and skill in the orthopaedicsubspecialty of arthroplasty through the ISKSAA PUNJAB FELLOWSHIP. I would like to share my experiences through this testimonial for the same.

The fellowship was for a total period of 3 weeks, which I had completed during the month of April 2017. I am from Chennai and am poor with regards to Hindi language skills. So was a bit apprehensive about managing communication during the fellowship training. But my mentor Dr.Avtar Singh and his team made sure that this never was a problem to me during the entire period of fellowship. Upon arrival at Amritsar I travelled by cab from airport to Amandeep Hospital which is located about 10 Kms from airport. Hospital is located on the G.T. Road and easily accessible from any part of the City. Amandeep Hospital, Amritsar is a busy 24X7 hospital, popular for the Orthopaedic care catering to Northern Punjab and extending their Service to Jammu and Kashmir as well. It is a DNB training institute and is one of the best centres in the country to learn Orthopaedics. Apart from orthopaedics the hospital is famous for Plastic and cosmetic surgery, Neurosurgery, Head and Neck cancer and Minimal Access surgery.

My mentor Dr.Avtar Singh, needs no introduction as he is much popular in the world of Arthroplasty, Trauma and Orthopaedics as a whole. In spite of his immense popularity and a true celebrity locally, he is such a down to earth person whose humble nature is an example to all younger generation surgeons and we need to emulate this from him. I was provided free accommodation at the hospital owned apartment just 5 minutes’ walk from hospital. Hospital has a good canteen within the premises and serves good Punjabi food.

The day at the hospital starts by 7:30 in the morning with first arthroplasty case ready for incision by that time. Usually there would 4 or 5 joints in the morning and 1 or two cases in the evening and the slot for elective cases would be over by 7 in the evening. On average the monthly joints census ranges from 100 to 120. I witnessed all varieties of arthroplasty cases including simple primary hip and knee, complex primaries and revisions though the major share was primary arthroplasty. Bilateral knee replacement was a common scenario here. Theatre is equipped with Navigation system and it was my first experience to witness navigated knee arthroplasty. The theatre is equipped with video recording facility from which we can retrieve surgical video of interesting cases. I was impressed by the work in theatre where every staff knew his job and carried out the same with sincerity and ease. I felt really lucky to have had the opportunity to learn from Dr.Avtar Singh, who with his skill, speed and accuracy made sure the outcome of the surgery was perfect and nothing less. He taught me the techniques to achieve perfect ligament balancing, appropriate cuts and achieving perfect mechanical alignment in the end. I could stop him anywhere to clear my doubts and he was always ready with the convincing answer and made sure that my query was answered before proceeding with the surgery. During the course of fellowship I was able to assist him in about 65 joints and observe in about 25 cases in total which helped me gain in depth knowledge in managing arthroplasty cases.

Apart from theatre I would join the Senior residents of the hospital for ward rounds in the afternoon and would try to collect a picture of the post-op xray and discuss the same with them. Also would make a note of the waiting cases for the next day and discuss about the pre-op plan. Though I had previously completed one year fellowship in Arthroplasty in Chennai, I witnessed a few concepts for the first time in this institute and I would like to highlight as follows.

In addition to arthroplasty I had the opportunity to observe a variety of other cases including complex trauma, poly trauma, deformity corrections, limb lengthening procedures and arthroscopy. I am indebted to Dr. K.K.Singh an expert in intramedullary nailing and Dr. Rajeev Vohra pioneer in Foot and ankle surgery for enlightening me with nuances in the field. I would like to thank the anaesthetists, theatre staff, ward staff and doctors for helping me during my entire period of fellowship.

I am immensely thankful for the kindness and hospitality of Dr.Avtar Singh and Dr.Amandeep Kaur whose warm reception and smile will make anyone feel at home. Apart from free accommodation, arrangements were made by the hospital for me to have a visit to Wagah border and Golden temple. On the whole I feel lucky to have got the opportunity to learn arthroplasty from one the doyens of the field which definitely influences me in my future endeavors. Thank you Dr.Pushpinder Bajaj and the entire ISKSAA team for providing me the opportunity.