Spine Rotation Goals & Objectives
Dr. Ronald Lakatos

Who/When: One- to two-month rotation for R-3 and 4.

Goals: The goals of this rotation are to provide enhanced clinical education in regards to adult spinal care with emphasis on both elective procedures/surgeries and office followup. There is secondary emphasis on trauma cases admitted to the orthopaedic trauma service during the month. It will be expected that the resident will obtain a better insight as to management of the common adult spinal conditions, along with conservative and operative management and the range of results that are obtained. The goal is to provide a balance of operative case and office follow-up continuity.

Schedule: Resident will be involved with patients from Drs. Amongero, Lakatos, and Lehner. Due to the variability in operative procedures, office hours, vacation schedules, etc., and relative importance of various types of procedures, priorities will have to be made by the resident as to scheduling office days versus operative procedures throughout the month.

The residents should spend several days in the office with each of the spinal physicians, spending any additional time in the operating room covering spinal cases (depending on the nature of the procedure).

Dr. Marcus Amongero has office hours from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Tuesday and Thursday.

Dr. James Lehner has his south office (most advantageous for adult spinal care) on Monday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Dr. Ronald Lakatos' office includes Tuesday 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a combination of fractures/trauma follow-up in addition to spinal followup visits. Additionally office consultations and followup are primarily performed on Friday from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Trauma Consultations: The emphasis on this rotation is more on adult degenerative spinal conditions. For trauma, initial evaluations should routinely be handled by the orthopaedic trauma service or, if needed, by the spine resident. All trauma cases should be reviewed by the spinal rotation resident with a discussion on management options and followup.

With different attendings involved along with office and operative cases, some customization and planning for the month rotation will obviously be required. Certainly this can be planned prior to the month by checking on office schedules, times away by the Attendings, and prioritization of surgeries.