Under Pressure

What happens to the human body in the most extreme environments?In this episode, we’re joined by Dr. Scott Parazynski – physician, innovator and former NASA astronaut – for a conversation that goes far beyond the operating room. Dr. Parazynski shares insight from his time at NASA, his medical training, and his work at the intersection of tech and human performance. We discuss decision-making in high-stakes environments, how teams operate when there’s no room for error, and what clinicians can learn from spaceflight about resilience, monitoring, and pushing the limits of what’s possible.______________Visit our landing page!

Dr. Samir Mehta joins Under Pressure for a conversation on orthopaedic trauma, surgical judgment, innovation, and the evolving role of data in medicine. From teaching residents and building expertise in high-pressure environments to advancing personalized approaches for predicting fracture healing, Dr. Mehta shares insights from decades of experience in trauma care and education. We also explore how orthopaedic surgery has changed over time, what separates technical skill from true clinical judgment, and why some of the most important lessons in medicine happen outside the operating room.

In this episode, Dr. William Obremskey joins us for a discussion on how compartment syndrome actually presents in practice, the realities of surgical decompression, and the difficult scenarios surgeons rarely talk about, including what happens when a compartment is no longer viable. We also explore knee dislocations, scapula fractures, and infection prevention strategies with MSK implants.__________________Comparing the Effects of Age, Sex, and Extremity Fracture Location on Continuous Intra-compartmental Pressure (ICP) Measurements in Trauma PatientsVisit our landing page!

Acute compartment syndrome is one of the most feared diagnoses in orthopaedic trauma, yet despite decades of teaching, controversy and uncertainty remain. In this episode, Dr. Andrew Schmidt joins us for a thoughtful and refreshingly candid discussion on why compartment syndrome continues to generate anxiety among surgeons, the limitations of traditional diagnostic thinking, and how dogma, research challenges, and medicolegal pressures have shaped the field. We explore what fasciotomy truly represents, why defining a diagnostic “gold standard” remains elusive, and what the future of multimodal treatment strategies might look like.________________Visit our landing page!

When surgeons talk about compartment syndrome, the focus is often on diagnosis and surgical urgency. Far less attention is given to what happens next for the patient. In this episode, Dr. Christopher Doro joins us for a conversation on the downstream realities of acute compartment syndrome, recovery timelines, functional challenges, and the physical and psychological hurdles patients face following fasciotomy or limb loss. We also discuss real cases, the implications of false-positive pressure findings in ACS, and how multidisciplinary care impacts patients’ lives._____________________Do one-time intracompartmental pressure measurements have a high false-positive rate in diagnosing compartment syndrome?Intracompartmental Pressure Monitoring Using a Handheld Pressure Monitoring System_____________________Visit our landing page!