Undergraduate Orthopaedics

Preamble for Lecturers:

This syllabus is provided to you by Casey Chan MD as optional supplemental reading and is not meant to replace your normal lectures or lectures notes which will remain your primary source of information.  

There will be overlap with your lectures and lecture notes.  The information provided is meant to be a standard set of information for all undergraduate students learning basic orthopedics.

It is meant to take you to a level where you will be knowledgeable enough to treat basic orthopedic condition as a general practitioner.  You will be competent to know when to refer and to recognise emergency conditions requiring urgent referrals.  It will also provide you with basic knowledge to discuss orthopedic care recommended by the specialist. 

These notes are organised systematically by basic principles, disease presentation, cause, diagnosis and recommended treatment.

The notes are richly illustrated with images so that the subject matter can be easily remembered and recall for clinical application.  

The topics provided here follow the guideline of must know, must see and good to know.

Here is the link to List of Topics with links to the relevant chapters.

The aims of these supplemental readings are:
1. Provide a set of uniform basic knowledge base on general orthopedics principles that a general practitioner should know and be able to provide basic orthopedic care.
2. Enable the general practitioner to provide first line orthopedic care and refer to specialist when appropriate and to understand consultation note and discuss intelligently with his patient the specialist's recommendation.  Notes will provide guidelines when urgent referral is needed for immediate treatment.
3. Each topic is flagged as must know, must see, good to know.
4. How a directed physical examinations should be conducted based on presentation, history and provisional diagnosis.


2.  My teaching approach is that of the famous Robert Salter.
Approach each orthopedic condition like a detective mystery.

Murder mystery My teaching approach

Topics will be published* after your lectures and your lecture notes have been made available to you:  

A Problem Based Approach

Arm the students with the necessary orthopedic knowledge to enable him to provide first line basic orthopedic care and recognise when to refer patients at appropriate time to specialist. Know what are the orthopedic emergencies that require urgent referral for immediate intervention.  The government has a mandate for general practitioner to be medical gatekeepers especially in polyclinics.  This philosophy is reflected in my teaching approach.