Roadside Mysteries

or the Orthopaedic Center of the Rockies

OCR Mascot

OCR has changed their name to include the word “Spine”  so maybe now it’s the Orthopaedic & Spine Center of the Rockies or “OSCR”. Primarily the headquarters for “Sports Medicine”, I was amazed that they let me anywhere near the place to get a simple arthroscopic partial meniscectomy.

My GP sent me to see Dr. Rocci Trumper at the OCR for treatment of a torn meniscus on my right knee, an obvious sports injury don’t you know! After talking to many people in Fort Collins it seemed that:

1) They either had a torn meniscus at one time or knew someone who did.

2) If they got treated in FoCo, it was by Dr. Trumper.

So this guy must have seen the inside of everybody’s knee in town by my estimate. And he gave me pictures to show:

THE BLADE

This appears to be a miniature X-Acto blade pointing at my knee bone. I think it was used just to intimidate the surrounding tissue in anticipation of what was to come.

THE PROBE

It was important to check the parts of the meniscus between the bone to make sure there was no folded-over flap that could just cause more pain in the future.

THE NIPPER

This miniature needle-nose plier can not only help grab onto various sections for inspection, it also has piraña like teeth on the end that can nip off parts if need be.

THE HOMOGENIZER

Oh sure, they called this a little shaver tool or resector but it looked more like some kind of a chopping mechanism or ‘homogenizer’ that turned whatever it touched into purée. Watch the video below (if you dare).

Scope video

Interestingly this video has had over 100 views in less than 24 hours since it was posted. That’s more than the ‘Annie the Railroad Dog’ video has had in 6 months! Arthroscopic videos are HOT!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 12:45 pm and is filed under Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.