Orthopedics is the part of medicine that looks after bones, joints, and the muscles and ligaments that move them. A broken wrist, a worn-out knee, a curved spine, a football injury — that is this field. Though actually, the name began with children: doctors who tried to train a child’s body to grow straighter when the bones were not growing in a straight way. Today it is for every age, not only children. American English writes orthopedics; British English often writes orthopaedics, with an extra a. Same work, different spelling. In a hospital this is usually its own department, and a lot of the work is surgery, so you will also hear orthopedic surgery.