She revealed that Bankart surgery is the most effective treatment for first-time anterior shoulder dislocation without significant bone loss, and published her findings in one of the world's most prestigious orthopedic journals. Eszter Virág-Tulassay was honored with the Excellent Student Award by the Centre for Translational Medicine.
Dr. Virág-Tulassay is a third-year Ph.D. student at CTM, who is about to take the specialist exam in trauma and orthopedics and expects to obtain her Ph.D. degree soon. In her first meta-analysis, she compared different therapies for acute anterior shoulder dislocation, while in her second project, she is examining the success of another stabilizing surgery for the same injury. “I started thinking about obtaining a Ph.D. degree when I was already working as a clinician at the Department of Orthopaedics, Semmelweis University. Since I did not want to give up my clinical work for research, I was delighted to learn that at CTM, research is supported by statisticians and scientific methodology supervisors. I also liked the fact that the training requires a dedicated time frame for scientific work.”
Dr. Virág-Tulassay has always found scientific work important, and even as a TDK student, she conducted research in a laboratory. After graduating, she joined clinical studies launched by Gábor Skaliczki, who later became her supervisor at CTM. “I knew that research and clinical work are not easy to combine, but I was always taught that I can only advance professionally if I also do scientific work. For this reason, I did not feel that I was making a sacrifice by devoting time to research, even at the expense of my free time. As an orthopedic and traumatology resident, I am primarily interested in shoulder surgery, which inspired my Ph.D. research topic. Our starting point was that we knew that in Hungary, patients are often not operated on right away after their first shoulder dislocation, but instead receive conservative therapy. However, we did not know whether this was the best solution. We aimed to clarify this and find out which is the most appropriate treatment option for anterior shoulder dislocation. Our meta-analysis showed that Bankart surgery is the most effective treatment for first-time anterior shoulder dislocation without significant bone loss. We are continuing our research and currently investigating in a clinical study what the situation is with shoulder dislocations that also involve bone damage. Based on our research, we plan to create guidelines for the treatment of shoulder dislocation.”
Eszter Virág-Tulassay completed her Complex Exam last June, and since she has always considered educational work to be important, she joined the CTM program as a co-supervisor. She is currently assisting three first-year Ph.D. students with their research. Mihály Péter Dániel is researching the treatment of frozen shoulder, Soma Szőke is trying to identify modifiable risk factors for infection after primary arthroplasty, and Lilla Mayer is researching novel strategies in the management of hip surgeries. Dr. Virág-Tulassay enjoys working with her students, loves sharing her knowledge with them, and adores teamwork.
(Szabó)