SurgeXperiences 220

Welcome to SurgeXperiences – the one and only surgical blog carnival in the medical blogosphere. Today I will be your host for the 20th edition of the 2nd season.

SurgeXperiences logo created by vitum of vitum medicinus.

To a medical student like me, the field of surgery is very intriguing, to say the least. The daily working life of a surgeon, or even that of a surgical trainee, can be jam-packed full of action, blood, guts and gore. Dull moments in surgery are hard to come by. Surgeons are able to test their hypotheses and see rapid, graphic results from their work. Students are often awed by this process. What also draws me to surgery is the immense satisfaction of being able to completely excise a cancer (hence providing a definitive cure), or relieve the pain of an intra-abdominal catastrophe, e.g. perforated appendix. 

Surgically inclined medical students or residents also have a myriad of surgical specialties to be further intrigued by. In this 20th edition of SurgeXperiences Season 2, I will attempt to feature articles relating to these various surgical specialties or sub-specialties. 

(Note: The pictures featured below attempt to capture the various surgical specialists in action. Some pictures may be too gory or bloody. Please proceed with caution.)

General Surgery

Dr Jeffrey Parks (Buckeye Surgeon) addresses a friendly community announcement  to all ER doctors regarding reducing an incarcerated hernia.

 

A general surgeon from South Africa, Dr Bongi (Other Things Amanzi) starts a new series “Surgical Principles of Bongi“. Number 1: to swear does in fact help. Funny story. Keep a look out for more.

 

Jeffrey (Vagus Surgicalis) contributes a post on Hereditary Diffuse Gastric Cancer after seeing this highly malignant condition being highlighted on TV: Grey’s Anatomy. 

 

Merriwether (a patient) recently had some lipomas excised and shares his experience and some post-op photos.   

After a colostomy and ileocystostomy, a patient’s daugher (Tiger by the tale) blogs about the aftermath and impending ICU stay. Wish him a speedy recovery.

Neurosurgery

An obese man is being surgically implanted with electrodes inside his brain and exposed to electrical currents trying to make him weight. This is a first of its kind and I leave it up to the reader to comment at the article re: human experimentation. (image credit)

 

Talking about experimenting on humans, this Italian neurosurgeon was certainly pushing the boundaries when he decided to continue surgery on his patient despite suffering from an anginal spasm himself. “I couldn’t leave [the patient] at such a delicate moment… I’m not a hero, I only did my duty.” Read all about it here.

 

A Russian teenager dies after a rare brain stem operation. The father is now suing the Oklahoma City surgeon in a civil lawsuit for medical negligence.

Obstetrics

Some might argue obstetricians are not surgeons. In South Africa, interns perform Caesarean Sections commonly, but before they do, they have to earn a right to do so, just like any surgical procedure. Dr Karen Little (Just Up the Dose) writes about obtaining this license to cut at where she practices medicine – the Crater vs Civilization. (image credit)

Orthopaedic Surgery

An orthopaedic surgeon from the Philippines, Bone MD (The Orthopedic Logbook)addresses a post to young / junior doctors regarding career choices, and how it is OK to be lost. (image credit)

 

A cerebral palsy patient pays an orthopaedic surgeon a visit at his clinic, recounting an awkward moment.

Ophthalmology

Valerian, a recent customer of eye surgery, shares about his PRK experience. 

 

A Repository for Bottled Monsters shares a journal article about eye injuries and prosthetic restoration in the American Civil War years. Cool pictures and great historical information. (image credit)

Peri-operative medicine

Dr Bates (Suture for a Living) reviews an article on the requirement of perioperative stress doses of corticosteroids.

Plastic surgery

Plastic surgeon Dr Ramona Bates (Suture for a Living) educates us on medical lasers and the law after reading an article from a “throwaway” journal “MedEsthetics”. (image credit)

Sometimes, veterinary surgeons can take pointers from their counterparts who operate on real human beings, just like a certain Dr Michael Pavletic. This vet, faced with a tumour on a cat’s face, turned to an older human reconstructive surgery textbook that suggested a simple skin flap might do the trick. He took what was a routine technique in human surgery and tailored the procedure for a cat. It worked. Today, he is a pioneer in veterinary reconstructive plastic surgery. Read about him here. 

Moving back our focus to human surgery, chronic refractory pilonidal disease can result in an undesirable cosmetic effect after multiple incisions and drainages. Dr Lisa Marcucci (Inside Surgery) describes a commonly-used technique “Z-plasty” to overcome this problem. 

Although cosmetic surgery is only a part of plastic surgery, it is very prominent in the community and considerable attention is dedicated to who had it, should you have it, and the like. I thought i might throw in something since everyone knows about this former King of Pop. Apparently he is having some cosmetic procedures to “doll up” before his return to stage.

Well it seems that some ‘doctors’ have also jumped onto the bandwagon and pretend to be plastic surgeons when they are not. Adventures in Plastic Surgery reports. 

Trauma surgery

Dr Parker (A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure) is back with a shout with a continuation of his “Tales from the Trauma Service” series at XVIII.

Transplant surgery

Dr Jeffrey Parks (Buckeye Surgeon) talks about transplant chains, or NEAD (non-simultaneous, extended altruistic) donor chains. He highlights an important issue of moral obligation of those involved to donate their organs to “keep the chain going”.

Diagnostic services

Radiological imaging are sometimes indispensable to a surgeon before he/she takes a patient to surgery. Good ol’ Dr Vijay (Catscanman) has contributed a post full of 3D reformatted images from a post-CABG Coronary CT Angiogram. Check it out; very cool. (image from link above)

Below, articles are not grouped according to surgical sub-specialties anymore. 

The surgical career..

Dr Crippen (NHS Blog Doctor) thinks out loud … “What is a surgeon?“, when a patient of his shows him who did his inguinal hernia repair.

Regarding inter-profession relations, Dr Parker (A Chance to Cut is a Chance to Cure) updates us on some of the drama that has been going on, and what he reckons, in R-E-S-P-E-C-T —  parts ONE and TWO. 

Surgical training … the tough years ahead. at least for me. Surgical resident Dr Alice (Cut on the dotted line) reflects on why “tough love” is best love for educating interns and medical students.

It is no wonder then, why some surgeons are soooo tired. But is tough surgical training to blame in this following case? A plastic surgeon at Beth Israel Deaconess was so fatigued from previous day’s activities that he dozed off during surgery. Now it is big hoo-ha in the news, at least in Boston. 

Advances in surgery

The Medical Quack reports that the world’s first robotic distal pancreatectomy was performed at Fox Chase Cancer Centre via the VikY system. 

Over at Abu Dubai, a surgeon performs the first telesurgery at UAE in front of various colleagues.

Surgical media

Oystein (The Sterile Eye) is a medical videographer from Norway. He has the following articles/media links to contribute. 

• Of background music in surgical videos. What do YOU think?
• The National Museum of Health and Medicine are digitizing their vast archive of meical photos. Check it out.
•  He also recorded a video of a laparoscopic  liver resection, with a brief summary. 
• Lastly, a video of ERCP. 

Gabrielle Eden has a short write up on the background of the famous picture of a foetus grabbing onto a neonatal surgeon’s hand. It is entitled “The Hand of Hope“. 

Will you be in Italy from Oct 27 to Nov 8? If so, you could join in the Vesalius Trust Art and Anatomy Tour – a tour of wax anatomical models at several anatomical museums. Even if you can’t go, the spine-chilling pictures at Morbid Anatomy might suffice. Here’s a preview:

That rounds up this edition of SurgeXperiences. What i lack in terms of humour or expertise in commentary, i hope i have made it up with the images i included.

Next edition will be hosted on 19 Apr at Suture for a Living. 

You can submit your blog posts via the carnival submission form, and check out all the previous editions. You can also subscribe to SurgeXperiences via RSS feed or email.

If you would like to host a future edition, don’t hesitate to contact me.

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