Altered communication in in-office orthopaedic surgery: Essential learning for residents

Summary: Imagine being wide awake while a doctor performs surgery on your hand! A popular method called WALANT lets doctors do surgeries right in the office while you are fully awake. It is faster, cheaper, and very safe.

But there is a funny catch: doctors have to teach new surgeons without scaring you. They can't say scary words like "cut" or "scalpel" out loud. Instead, doctors have invented secret hand signals and code words to talk to each other. To keep patients relaxed, they even offer virtual reality (VR) headsets, TV, or music. Sometimes, awake patients get so comfortable they end up sharing a little too much gossip during the surgery!

For more details, see rssapp-aaos-org-aaosnow at aaos.org/aaosnow/2026/apr/residency/residency02/ (opens in new tab)