07/09/07 – 09/09/07

New York

Arrived in New York on the evening of 06/09/07, staying at the Hospital for Special Surgery. It really is a city that never sleeps, the plumbers working on the floor above our rooms were certainly busy all night.

Revived by plenty of New York coffee & a bagel, we met Doug Padgett in this famous joint replacement centre.

Again, a fantastic research set up with an amazing retrieval lab, housing some 18000 implants. If you want to see explanted hips & knees, this is the place. We looked at “unbreakable” ceramics (broken) & scratched “unscratchable” oxinium before watching a demonstration of their impaction grafting in vitro study, using graft substitutes (TCP & HA). They also use the Ortech software for data collection.

After a very interesting morning we were entertained by Occupational Health, who wanted to know our rubella titres etc before allowing us into theatre to observe. Good to know that the US surgeons have the same healthy respect for this beurocracy and the same vocabulary that we do, judging by the Anglo-Saxon expletives from our hosts when they heard that this is what we had to do.

35 orthopaedic theatres (17 inpatient) meant plenty of choice for observing. Mukesh was able to lend a hand, explaining the Wrightington method of bulk autografting for a dysplastic acetabulum in detail. The surgeon appeared interested but put in a cementless cup all the same.

That evening we attended a New York Mets baseball game at Shea Stadium (next to Flushing Meadow), the sports team looked after by the Hospital for Special Surgery. Great game, with the Mets hammering the Houston Astros. Fascinating to see huge billboards advertising HSS at the game in the same way you would see Carlsberg adverts at Liverpool or Flybe at Norwich. A different world.

Saturday was our first free day and Doug Padgett proved to be an extremely entertaining and generous host. A round of golf at the Westchester golf club was not done justice by JW’s hacking on what is a PGA tour venue.