Articles
Fluid Waste Management In The OR
September 28, 2010 8:27 am | CommentsMary Hannon, Aspen Surgical Director of Marketing Falls are a leading cause of work-related injuries and deaths. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 235,419 falls occurred in 2009, with an estimated 579 of those falls resulting in fatality.
Our Health Care Happy Meal
September 28, 2010 8:26 am | by Dr. Wes | CommentsParents the world over know the magic of McDonald's Happy Meals. There's something about the promise of a Happy Meal -- the way it's packaged, the free toy -- young families and especially kids find them irresistible. But anyone who's purchased one of these knows the reality: that toys within the Happy Meal are typically played with for no more than three minutes and the plastic tchotchkes are discarded faster than the accompanying 2% milk.
LED-ing The Way
September 24, 2010 12:41 pm | by Amanda McGowan, editor | CommentsLED usage and advanced technology continues to shine in the OR. September 27, 2010 Since their introduction to the surgical market in 2007, light emitting diode (LED) surgical lighting has seen dramatic growth in the operating room. According to Joey Knight, Vice President of Sales at MAQUET Surgical Workplaces, in the approximately three years since LEDs have been available as lighting options for the surgical suite, the technology has claimed more than 50 percent of the market from the previous halogen technology, and projections for the future say that growth will only continue.
Does A Stereotypical Surgical Personality Exist?
September 24, 2010 6:37 am | by Shawn Vuong | CommentsRecently, our class learned and practiced how to correctly ’scrub’ for surgery. During this little lab activity, we were all gowned up and washing our hands when a couple of classmates asked if I was going to be a surgeon. I said I didn’t really know yet, although I did find surgery pretty fascinating.
Friend Request
September 22, 2010 6:49 am | by Daniela Lamas | CommentsLast winter, in the middle of my intern year, I became Facebook friends with a young man who was dying in the intensive-care unit. An investment banker in his mid-20s, he thought he was healthy until a fluttering in his chest and swollen ankles took him to a doctor. Now he was in the I.C.U. with a rare cardiac condition and the vague possibility of a transplant.
Managing Fluid Waste
September 22, 2010 6:49 am | Bemis Health Care | CommentsManaging infectious fluid waste in the OR is a major concern for both patients and healthcare professionals. Fluid must be contained properly and disposed of safely to protect the staff and comply with the facility’s infection control policy. A fluid waste management system should be safe and efficient but still provide the user the ability to manage volume loss.
Orthopedic Surgeons Changing Lives In Vietnam
September 21, 2010 7:21 am | CommentsThis year marks the 9th Annual Surgical Outreach Project to Vietnam by members of the American Orthopaedic Foot & Ankle Society (AOFAS). Since the first project in 2002, the AOFAS surgeons have transformed the lives of more than 600 Vietnamese children and adults with lower extremity deformities and disabilities through corrective surgery.
Harder Than Doing Something
September 21, 2010 7:21 am | by Bruce Campbell, MD | Comments“Are you giving up on me?” My patient looks at me severely. “There must be other treatment options! Aren’t there some experimental drugs out there? I have beaten this cancer twice before. Are you saying that I can’t beat it again?” No one can ever know with absolute certainty whether my patient's newly recurrent cancer might miraculously disappear with one more treatment.
Teaching Doctors About Nutrition and Diet
September 20, 2010 7:13 am | by Pauline W. Chen, MD | CommentsWithin days of being accepted into medical school, I started getting asked for medical advice. Even my closest friends, who should have known better, got in on the action. “Should I take vitamins?” “What do you think of this diet?” “Is yogurt good for me or not?” Each and every time someone posed such a query, I became immediately cognizant of one thing: the big blank space in my brain.
World’s First Transcontinental Anesthesia
September 17, 2010 7:27 am | CommentsVideoconferences may be known for putting people to sleep, but never like this. Dr. Thomas Hemmerling and his team of McGill’s Department of Anesthesia achieved a world first on August 30, 2010, when they treated patients undergoing thyroid gland surgery in Italy remotely from Montreal.
Two-Thirds Of Patients Worry About Acquiring Deadly Infections In Hospital
September 15, 2010 11:25 am | CommentsNearly one-third of Americans have experienced a Hospital Acquired Infection (HAI) or have a friend or relative who contracted one, according to a new survey from Xenex Healthcare. HAIs (such as C. diff, MRSA, staph infections and pneumonia) are the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and while hospitals have stepped up efforts to prevent these deadly infections, more needs to be done.
Bariatric Operations Reduce Odds of Gestational Diabetes, Cesarean Section
September 15, 2010 6:20 am | CommentsObese women who have bariatric surgical procedures before pregnancy were three times less likely to develop gestational diabetes (GDM) than women who have bariatric operations after delivery, according to new research findings published in the August issue of the Journal of the American College of Surgeons .
The Emotional Resistance To Admitting Error Cannot Be Legislated Away
September 15, 2010 6:20 am | by Danielle Ofri, MD, PhD | CommentsIt’s been more than a decade since the seminal report “To Err is Human” by the Institute of Medicine. The report made waves when it estimated that 1.5 million people are affected by medical errors and that nearly 100,000 die annually as a result of medical errors. Some of those numbers have been debated, but there is no doubt that medical error is a significant issue in medicine that needs to be addressed.
The Surgeon's Pact With the Patient
September 13, 2010 9:30 am | by Pauline W. Chen, M.D. | CommentsThe patient, in her late 50s with failing kidneys, had come to the hospital for what she and her doctors thought would be a simple procedure preparing her for dialysis. But instead of returning home the next day, the woman ended up in the hospital for nearly half of my internship. Her procedure went awry, she landed in the intensive care unit, and over the course of the next six months she returned at least a dozen more times to the operating room, all failed attempts to right what had gone so terribly wrong.
Blog: Can Camera Phones Aid Diagnosis?
September 10, 2010 5:53 am | by Iltifat Husain | CommentsDr. Neal Sikka, an Emergency Medicine physician at George Washington University, has a six-month study underway examining how accurately Emergency Medicine practitioners at George Washington University Hospital can diagnose wounds from patient generated cell phone images. Sikka told the Washington Post that it’s currently the largest (mobile health) study to look at acute wound care.
