Orthopedics is the study of the body's musculoskeletal system, that is, bones, joints, and muscles. A doctor specialized in this discipline treats any part of the system that provides locomotion capabilities. Some specialists focus on legs or arms, while others treat feet and ankles, hips, knees, hands and wrists, and shoulders and elbows. Some orthopedic doctors only perform spinal surgery, while others are in the broader field of sports medicine. Within any of these areas, physicians may narrow their specialty to a certain category of patients, such as children or trauma cases.
An orthopedist may have a general interest in an entire limb. For example, the specialist might only perform leg surgeries, but will perform any bone, joint, or muscle surgery on the leg. The doctor may find himself repairing a compound fracture, that is, when a broken bone breaks through the skin, and then handling a dislocated hip case. Also, some orthopedists treat ailments of the entire arm, from the shoulder to the fingers.
However, it is more common for orthopedic specialties to have a narrower focus on the arms and legs. The most common orthopedic specialties for the legs are divided into knees and hips and feet and ankles. For the arms, doctors generally focus on the hands and wrists or the shoulders and elbows. Orthopedists can take an even more limited view of an area simply by performing joint replacements. For example, an orthopedist who specializes in knees and hips will replace those joints but will refuse to see patients with torn muscles around the hip or knee.
Other orthopedic doctors choose to focus on the entire musculoskeletal system, but only treat athletes; This specialty is known as sports medicine. These doctors treat broken bones, strains, sprains, and common muscle ailments suffered by athletes. This field focuses not only on repairing damage, but also on minimizing athlete downtime. Sports medicine orthopedics can range from physicians who care for high school or college athletes to specialists who perform complex surgical procedures on professional athletes.
The range of orthopedic specialties extends to the spine. Spinal orthopedics generally treats any localized ailment from disc problems to pressure on the chord. Surgeons in the specialty perform operations such as spinal fusion, disc replacement, and fracture repair.
Within these many areas of orthopedic specialties, some doctors exclusively treat only certain types of patients. For example, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon may only treat children with knee injuries or spinal problems. Orthopedists may also specialize in trauma cases. These doctors perform the same types of operations as their colleagues, but are trained to treat patients who may be suffering from multiple life-threatening injuries.