Surgery and surgeons

1,981 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 18

Issues faced by LGBTQ individuals in the operative setting [PODCAST]

December 19, 2020Dec 19, 2020

"Studies have repeatedly demonstrated a vast majority of pain physicians don’t feel like they have adequate training in meeting the unique needs of this patient population, though most agree that such efforts are very necessary. This disconnect between demand and…

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“Studies have repeatedly demonstrated a vast majority of pain physicians don’t feel like they have adequate training in meeting the unique needs of this patient population, though most agree that such efforts are very necessary. This disconnect between demand and supply is a problem, a big one.

With the current pandemic stretching many people thin financially, the last thing that needs to …

Physician voices

Why this plastic surgeon closed his practice to become a high school science teacher

Timothy Bill, MD

December 5, 2020Dec 5, 20207

Imagine turning off your pager forever. If you are a solo-practitioner on call 24 hours a day, I suspect this thought has crossed your mind. Coordinating time off for vacation, being constantly interrupted at your children’s recital or athletic event, and even making it home to prepare dinner represent common challenges in this setting. A particular obstacle as a solo-practitioner involves the difficulty of running a small business – a …

Physician voices

Second victim syndrome: The pain of unexpected and tragic deaths lingers with physicians

Shira Shiloah, MD

December 1, 2020Dec 1, 2020

You were a twenty-one-year-old Black man. When we received you, your eyes were open I asked if you could hear me You whispered a phone number and “Mom.” To the green sterile operating room With your breaths of anesthesia, Your…

You were a twenty-one-year-old Black man.
When we received you, your eyes were open
I asked if you could hear me
You whispered a phone number and “Mom.”

To the green sterile operating room
With your breaths of anesthesia,
Your final conscious moments
Your pain ceased.

We worked on you for hours, Terrell.
I swear we tried
With fourteen units of O negative
Surgeons explored your wounds.
They clamped your major arteries.

Until your heart failed
And we watched you leave us.
I was a …

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Physician voices

I could not save this life with every possible medical tool at my disposal

Richard Morand, MD

November 28, 2020Nov 28, 2020

An excerpt from The Healer's Burden: Stories and Poems of Professional Grief. Leaning on the door of Trauma Bay 1, I survey the remains of my latest failure. The story is told in the bloody and jumbled instrument trays, monitors…

An excerpt from The Healer’s Burden: Stories and Poems of Professional Grief.

Leaning on the door of Trauma Bay 1, I survey the remains of my latest failure. The story is told in the bloody and jumbled instrument trays, monitors now silent and dark. In the center of the room sits a gurney covered with a white sheet and an unmistakable human form. Blood radiates

…

Physician voices

Surgical smoke evacuators and inertia in the time of COVID

Rene' M. Gonzalez, MD

November 23, 2020Nov 23, 2020

As an anesthesiologist, I fully understand that providers in my specialty, along with emergency room and intensive care providers, must care for patients with COVID-19 at close physical range during aerosol-generating procedures (AGPs) such as tracheal intubation and extubation, without the option of “social distancing.” Consequently, we currently rely on personal protective equipment (PPE), operating room ventilation systems, preoperative COVID testing, and hopefully, in the future, on vaccination and herd …

Physician voices

Advice to aspiring medical students on work-life balance

Kelly G. Elterman, MD

November 18, 2020Nov 18, 2020

I recently met a student and aspiring surgeon who asked me if I was happy with anesthesiology and a career in medicine in general. I told him that aspiring to medicine is wonderful and that while I am indeed happy with my career choice, it does come with daily challenges, both professional and personal. This led to a discussion of work-life balance, particularly with regard to family life, in which …

Physician voices

Why can’t I cover my operating rooms?

Tommy Verdone, MD

November 16, 2020Nov 16, 20203

The practice of anesthesiology is the practice of medicine. People who go to medical school and do a residency in anesthesiology are best equipped to deal with anesthetic delivery because they are qualified physicians before starting four years of specialty training in anesthesia. Many also have a fifth year of subspecialty training before entering their practice. With all this training, why is it that we cannot figure out how to …

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Why can’t I cover my operating rooms?

Conditions and diseases

What type of tummy tuck is right for you?

Robert Peterson, MD

November 15, 2020Nov 15, 2020

You may already be aware of what a tummy tuck is and who should get one. One thing, perhaps, you’re confused about is what kind of tummy tuck would work best for you. If that is correct, worry not. We’ve…

There are several different types of tummy tucks, each designed to address particular areas of the ‘tummy’ in a specific manner. Considering each of us has a different …

Physician voices

Will women in medicine survive COVID-19?

Karen S. Sibert, MD

November 12, 2020Nov 12, 20205

How are two-career households with children — let alone single-parent households — going to manage with daycare centers and schools closed, perhaps for a long time to come? What damage will this do to career progression and earning potential if one parent must cut back on work? Will childcare demands inevitably delay or derail partnership or academic promotion?

When I was a young mother — my two youngest children are only …

Physician voices

Unconscious bias in the operating room

Edward Riley, MD

October 24, 2020Oct 24, 20202

Our obstetric anesthesia team sat down to debrief after a particularly harrowing case. We had just replaced our patient's blood volume twice over after she went into labor with a placenta previa accompanied by a placenta accreta. The operating room…

Our obstetric anesthesia team sat down to debrief after a particularly harrowing case. We had just replaced our patient’s blood volume twice over after she went into labor with a placenta previa accompanied by a placenta accreta. The operating room had been the usual controlled chaotic scene of multiple teams intensely focused on their responsibilities. It was noisy. Too noisy. I had to remind everyone to restrict themselves to essential …

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Unconscious bias in the operating room

Physician voices

How can you be in a relationship with someone if you don’t speak the same language?

Yan Ho Lee, MD

October 6, 2020Oct 6, 20202

There is nothing more indelible than the words of an unhappy patient. In fact, in the past ten years, I can count on one hand the number of patients who have expressed dissatisfaction either in person, online, or on patient portals. Even though negative patient interactions are so rare, unfortunately, I’m consumed by them. I ask myself the same question that other physicians ask themselves every time something goes wrong: …

The Podcast by KevinMD

Inside the mind of the surgeon writer [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

October 1, 2020Oct 1, 2020

Explore why this general surgeon wrote a novel, and how writing helps with the stresses that accompany a surgery career. What is his #1 tip for those interested in surgery? What are the challenges facing the profession today? How can…

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Arthur Williams is a …

Physician voices

Death still affects me. I’m not numb. I’m human.

Maseray S. Kamara, MD

September 29, 2020Sep 29, 2020

It had been a long day. Our progress notes were done. The last scheduled case in the operating room was done, and it was time to wrap up loose ends and sign out my patients to the night team. But…

It had been a long day. Our progress notes were done. The last scheduled case in the operating room was done, and it was time to wrap up loose ends and sign out my patients to the night team.

But that’s when Room 4 died.

I walked onto the Burn Unit. The nurses were frantic. Can you page the Intensive Care Resident? He’s bradying down. The patient’s heart rate was steadily declining …

Conditions and diseases

The most common misconception about spine surgery

Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian

September 8, 2020Sep 8, 2020

The most persistent problem I encounter is not nerve pain or slipped discs. It’s the tenacious misconception that someone can be “too old” for spine surgery when it’s truly needed. Many years ago, it was true that age played a…

The most persistent problem I encounter is not nerve pain or slipped discs. It’s the tenacious misconception that someone can be “too old” for spine surgery when it’s truly needed.

Many years ago, it was true that age played a significant factor in a person’s ability to tolerate and recover from surgery. Surgeries were once highly invasive, and recovery could take months. But over the decades, spinal surgery techniques have improved …

Physician voices

The hospital CEO who made a surgical incision. What happened?

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

September 2, 2020Sep 2, 20203

Recently on Twitter, I asked this question above. The 130 (2.5 percent) of 5,213 respondents who said they would allow a CEO to make a skin incision highlight the unscientific nature of Twitter polls. Restricting voting to surgeons only is…

Recently on Twitter, I asked this question above.

The 130 (2.5 percent) of 5,213 respondents who said they would allow a CEO to make a skin incision highlight the unscientific nature of Twitter polls. Restricting voting to surgeons only is not possible. Many people asked me why I asked the question because surely no surgeon would ever have allowed it. Here is …

Medical education

Issues faced by LGBTQ individuals in the operative setting

Indraneel Prabhu

August 23, 2020Aug 23, 2020

This was the first time that I was unsure of how to respond when a patient cried. Usually, as a medical student, compassion and understanding helped make up for obvious gaps in our knowledge. It just comes with the territory. But this time was different: I could not understand why the patient was crying, because it was a reason I had yet to consider in my short medical journey.

The patient …

Physician voices

A surgeon’s medical mission experience in his own town

Cory Fawcett, MD

August 10, 2020Aug 10, 20202

Many physicians would like to use their skills on the mission field, but have a hard time finding an option that fits into their busy schedules. Several years ago, I looked for a medical mission, but I couldn’t find one…

Many physicians would like to use their skills on the mission field, but have a hard time finding an option that fits into their busy schedules.

Several years ago, I looked for a medical mission, but I couldn’t find one that would work for me, so I came up with the idea of setting up a medical mission experience in my own town. A local mission meant I wouldn’t need to …

Physician voices

A discussion about unprofessional behavior: a play in 1 act

Sarah M. Temkin, MD

August 6, 2020Aug 6, 20202

Setting: An impersonal, windowless conference room within a hospital Characters: A nurse in charge (NIC), a department chair (DC) and me (ME) *** NIC: Thank you for joining us to discuss the report you made of unprofessional behavior in the…

Setting: An impersonal, windowless conference room within a hospital

Characters: A nurse in charge (NIC), a department chair (DC) and me (ME)

***

NIC: Thank you for joining us to discuss the report you made of unprofessional behavior in the operating room. We’d like to start by letting you know that in this institution, we have a culture of informality. When I first got here, I found it unsettling that doctors were called …

The Podcast by KevinMD

What physicians today can learn from the history of surgery [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

July 27, 2020Jul 27, 2020

"Billroth spent long hours dissecting cadavers and planning on surgical interventions. He was able to pioneer abdominal surgery with careful preparation and strict adherence to meticulous antiseptic technique. Animal experimentation and cadaveric-rehearsed surgery emboldened the Viennese professor; perhaps the abdomen…

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“Billroth spent long hours dissecting cadavers and planning on surgical interventions. He was able to pioneer abdominal surgery with careful preparation and strict adherence to meticulous antiseptic technique. Animal experimentation and cadaveric-rehearsed surgery emboldened the Viennese professor; perhaps the abdomen could be entered. Nothing short of a ‘godlike creative spirit,’ as Mukherjee calls it, would suffice when it came to intestinal …

Physician voices

The 2020 American Board of Surgery Qualifying Examination: failure, backlash, and response

Elizabeth J. Lilley, MD, MPH

July 27, 2020Jul 27, 20202

After many years of training, I have graduated from residency and am now a board-eligible general surgeon. I was one of more than 1,000 candidates who attempted to take the American Board of Surgery (ABS) Qualifying Examination on July 16, 2020. What should have been a major milestone rapidly devolved into a nightmare, as examinees were locked out of sessions, falsely accused of violations, and unable to attain certification due …

Surgery and surgeons

Articles, page 18

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