Cast a Plast, an orthopaedic workshop with hands-on experience in cast application organized by Rotaract Club of The Caduceus and sponsored by Essity, was conducted by experts in the field at The Yellow Ribbon, Bangalore on 11th of December 2021 . The excitement to get into the event began much before the event itself. About 20 participants had to be selected from a group of more than 60 MBBS students from various medical colleges in Bangalore through Google forms on a first come first serve basis.
The forms rolled out at sharp 20:00 (IST) hours the evening before, and the slots were filled up within the span of a few minutes. The event started at 14:00 (IST) the next day online on a Zoom meeting that was joined by students and departments from various medical colleges across the state. Dr. Pramod, an orthopaedic onco-surgeon, and head of the team at TYR, introduced the guest speaker Dr. Devashis R Barick who is an experienced orthopaedic surgeon with many academic papers to his credit.
Dr. Barick explained the different types of fractures, their management, including the various methods of cast application. Sir took us through the development of cast application techniques over the years, explaining in detail the merits and advantages of recent advances in the materials used, and their superiority in terms of patient comfort, strength, durability, ease of application for the physician and increased penetrability to X-rays to yield clear imaging results. Towards the end, we had an interactive Q&A session where all our doubts were clarified.
After the online session, it was time to move on to the most exciting part of the workshop, where we would get to convert into practice all that we learnt in theory. The people from Essity supplied us with the material and guided us through the process of cast application. We got a chance to observe one of the participants apply a cast made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) on the forearm of another participant who volunteered. We then went on to apply fiber casts on one another till almost everyone had a cast on their forearm.
It was an enjoyable experience, we got to learn the techniques involved in the process, something that could be learnt only by practice. Our knowledge had been solidified by the hands-on experience as the casts we applied hardened to take shape. After we took pictures with the casts, it was time to remove them with an electric cutter. To wind up, we had some snacks and refreshments and left TYR more experienced than we came, with the knowledge we gained, the practical skills we acquired and a cast in our hands to remember the experience and the people who guided us to make this happen.