Orthopaedics List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Most Commons in Orthopaedics

• Compartment Syndrome
• Most commonly occurs in lower leg following tibia fractures or crash injuries
• Anterior Cruciate Ligament (ACL) Injury - most commonly injured knee ligament
• Osgood Schlatter’s Syndrome - most common in adolescents that are overactive (too many sports)
• Patellofemoral Pain: most commonly caused by anterior knee pain syndrome, chondromalacia patella, patellofemoral osteoarthritis
• Fibromyalgia - most common cause of chronic, widespread pain in the US

Neurology List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Most Commons in Neurology

• Tension Headache - most common type of headache
• Episodic Tension-Type Headache - most common headache subtype (<15 days monthly)
• Migraine - most common recurrent headache disorder
• Medication Overuse Headache (Analgesic Rebound) - most common cause of migraine-like and “mixed” headaches that occur > 15 days per month
• Epilepsy - most common in childhood due to perinatal injury, infection and genetic factors and old age due to stroke, tumors, or dementia
• Seizures
• Most common toxic causes of seizures: drugs, alcohol, and medications
• Most common metabolic causes of seizures: hypocalcemia, hypoglycemia, hyponatremia, hypoxia

Gastroenterology List of Most Commons for Physician Assistant Students

Esophageal adenocarcinoma is the fastest growing cancer in the United States. In total, it affects about 1.5 million people per year worldwide and 38,000 in the US alone. There has been a 6-fold increase in the last 3 decades, accounting for 60% of esophageal cancers. This is one puppy you don’t want to mess with; don’t even get me started on colorectal cancer!

Gastroenterology accounts for 10% of the PANCE, so make sure you pay attention during this part of your didactic phase! Knowing that, you had better take a step into gastroenterology with your thinking cap on ready to learn about new disease and therapy that can affect the way you provide care everyday.

Most Commons in Gastroenterology

• Heartburn (pyrosis) - most common symptom of esophageal disease
• GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease) - most common disorder of the esophagus
• Ulcerative Colitis - most commonly affects young adults in 2nd and 3rd decade of life, but 2nd peak in 7th decade
• Most common in N. America, England, N. Europe, and Australia
• More common in industrialized countries
• More common in higher socioeconomic status
• Important: Ulcerative colitis increases the risk of colorectal cancer
• Crohn’s Disease - most common between 15-30 years of age, though can present at any age
• More common in industrialized countries
• More common in higher economic status
• Most common in N. America, England, N. Europe, and Australia
• Skip areas common: The most common distribution pattern of Crohn’s disease is ileocecal, which involves the distal portion of the small intestine (terminal ileum) and the proximal large bowel (40% of patients)
• Most common skin lesions in IBD: pyoderma gangrenosum and erythema nodosum