Orthopedic Surgeons may greatly improve the quality of life.

Orthopedic surgeons can give nonsurgical advice that equals that of any other practitioner.
Earlier, we called these doctors heroes. They enter their specialty as the veterans of five years of post-medical school training in diseases and injuries that affect the bones and joints, as well as the muscles, ligaments, tendons, and the nerves that power them. Orthopedic surgeons do some of their most glorious batde in the operating room, where they have trans¬formed a ravaged painful knee, for example, into a smoothly functioning joint that can bend readily, straighten painlessly, and do its part in helping you walk well without a crutch or a cane.

Surgery, when it works, works wonders. 'My orthopedic surgeon has helped me more than anyone,' wrote a retired teacher from Kansas. 'He has performed eight operations on me — replaced both my knees, several joints in both hands, my left shoulder, and my right elbow — and the surgery has kept me out of a wheelchair. He has prescribed physical therapy and exer¬cise as follow-up care, and he watches me carefully with periodic checkups.'
Outside the operating room, orthopedic surgeons can and do provide many other kinds of treatment for arthritis, from prescription drugs and cortisone shots to braces and exercise advice. The orthopedic surgeon took x rays and told me I was not ready for surgery,' said a Wisconsin homemaker. Instead, he talked to me about the right way to bend and sit, and how to make hot packs out of towels.'

■ 'My orthopedic surgeon prescribed a TENS unit for me to use at home,' a Florida pharmacist reported, 'and it really helped.'

A forty-nine-year-old secretary from Missouri, who had seen just one doctor in the twenty years she's had osteoarthritis, said of her orthopedist, 'He is very sympathetic and encouraging. He's willing to listen to me, and he adjusts my medication for the most benefit to me.' In short, there's nothing to stop an accom¬plished surgeon from being a good doctor in the best sense of the term.