Recently, I had the honor to be an invited instructor at theLearning Center of the American Academy of Orthopaedics Surgeons. Masters Course AANA 2015 on elbow arthroscopy.
I recall that in the 1990s many surgeons thought that arthroscopy will be something temporary, a trend that will go away as many "new technologies" do. I also recall that arthroscopic surgery was approached with negativity or even skepticism even in the 1990s. During the time I spend at the AAOS Learning Center as an instructor on elbow arthroscopy I thought that being negative has no place in science and medicine. I remember the lecture of Dr Gary Poehling on elbow arthroscopy at the institution where I was trained (WFUBMC) and the first arthroscopes that were introduced in the US and imported from Japan. They were bulky, they will break and they will not be suitable for small joints. In addition, the quality of imaging was poor for diagnosis. I do not think anyone would have imagined the potential of arthroscopic surgery at that point.
Thirty years later arthroscopy of small joints has come long ways. While I was teaching fellows how to establish portals safely around the elbow, which is considered a difficult joint to scope, I realized that arthroscopy has even greater potential. I believe that the cameras and instruments will become smaller in size in the future, the ability to navigate the elbow will improve and the arthroscopic repair of collateral ligament ruptures or even fixation of shear fractures of the capitellum will become a reality. Some may think that I am very optimistic. The ones who belong to the arena of electronics and computer science know that we are not far away from manufacturing surgical instruments and arthroscopes that will have the diameter of a spinal needle. In my opinion it is exciting what the future will bring us. Negativity has no place in medicine.
