Week 5

This week I started working with a program called OxiriX. I am using the software to look at patient CT studies for the manuscript that I have been helping on that has to do with surgery outcomes at levels adjacent to the index level. I had previously found the demographic and surgical data from the Epic Hyperspace program. Now I am looking at the CT studies from radiology records to perform volumetric measurements of the foraminal space. Dr. Hartl's group has previously shown that decompression occurs at the index level during spine fusion surgery, but are now interested in what occurs at the levels adjacent. Through experience, they have noticed that many spine fusion patients return with problems after a few years of normal function. This is thought to be because of the adjacent levels to the fusion. Normally, the spine has some amount of movement at each level, but when this movement causes problems, a surgical fusion is often necessary. That fixes the problem at the index level, and patients are often pain and symptom free for years. However, there is no longer movement possible at this level of the fusion, so the levels above and below are now subjected to greater forces. This can cause additional spine problems in the future. I learned how to use the OsiriX software by watching Youtube videos. Different doctors from around the world had different demonstration videos, and after a few of them, I was able to work my way through the program and figure out how to use it for my purposes.
In addition, I have been given a smaller role of "occasional English proofreader" among the fellows that I have been working with. They are all from other countries originally, and while their English is good, I still check for anything that sounds weird in translation or might not be gramatically correct.