Orthopaedics for Physician Assistants

• Learn how
to interpret and correlate lab and diagnostic procedures, reach an accurate diagnosis, formulate effective treatment plans, and implement therapeutic strategies.
• Quickly grasp pertinent information with brief, bulleted text enhanced with clear diagrams and images.
• Easily follow the guidelines for each procedure thanks to consistent headings in each chapter and a handy outline format.
• See how to perform 14 key joint injections with online videos demonstrating elbow joint injection, knee joint injection, medial epicondyle injection, subacromial injection, digital block, and more.
• Access the entire text and illustrations online at www.expertconsult.com.

Patients are increasingly being referred to Physician Assistants by primary carers and specialists. PAs working in a surgical orthopaedic office make up 9.7% of the 68,000 PAs in practice. And for PAs working in other areas, a majority of their patients will have a musculoskeletal problem. Altogether the potential market for an orthopaedic handbook aimed specifically at PAs in practice and PA students is over 34,000. Up until now, they have had to rely on large reference works aimed at orthopaedic surgeons or primary care references. PAs have very specific duties which include performing comprehensive and problem focused history and physical exams; interpret and correlate lab and diagnostic procedures; differential diagnosis; formulate treatment plans; implement therapeutic intervention; exercise judgement on problems requiring consultation, referral, or evaluation by the supervising orthopaedic surgeon or other health care professionals; performing diagnostic and therapeutic procedures; assist in surgery, conduct hospital rounds, write orders; order, prescribe, dispense, and administer medication, orthosis, orthotics, braces and other orthopaedic devices; evaluate, screen and council patient on health maintenance and promote utilization of community resources; design, conduct and/or participate in research studies, manage databases and perform quality assurance.