Surgery and surgeons

1,981 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 57

How a drug addicted scrub tech changed my life forever

October 10, 2012Oct 10, 20128

It was a cold winter day in 2009 when my life changed forever, however, it would be months before I figured that out. On that fateful day, a drug-addicted surgical scrub tech assigned to my operating room stole syringes of fentanyl, a potent intravenous narcotic, from my anesthesia cart. According to news reports, investigative summaries, and the scrub tech’s confession, once she took the syringes, she used them on herself.

It’s …

Physician voices

In the OR during an appendectomy, an unexpected visitor

Jim deMaine, MD

October 8, 2012Oct 8, 2012

It was Trevor's first weekend to relax since moving to Seattle. He was out in a park walking Bailey, his year old lab, when his pager unexpectedly beeped. He called in to the operating room office, where the frantic head…

It was Trevor’s first weekend to relax since moving to Seattle. He was out in a park walking Bailey, his year old lab, when his pager unexpectedly beeped. He called in to the operating room office, where the frantic head nurse told him he had to come in. The scheduled anesthesiologist was very ill with the flu, and no one else was available. He had to come in for at …

Physician voices

Why going to a board certified plastic surgeon is important

Usha Rajagopal, MD

October 6, 2012Oct 6, 2012

The popularity of plastic surgery today is no secret; 13.8 million cosmetic procedures were performed in 2011 alone. Unfortunately, however, an increasing (and unsettling) number of people in the United States are undergoing procedures conducted by unlicensed, so-called “underground,” individuals…

The primary factor leading people to the doors of these backdoor doctors is, of course, cost. There’s no way around …

Real physician voices, twice a week

Free, and one click to unsubscribe.

Medical education

Morning rounds in the SICU

Amanda Xi, MD

September 27, 2012Sep 27, 20122

I open the heavy, wooden door to the unit. On my left are the patient rooms, equipped with minimal privacy; to my right are members of the healthcare team shuffling around. I continue toward my destination, a small room containing a couple desks and computers dedicated to mid-level providers, but cannot help but notice how eerie the unit is. Although there are at least fifty individuals within this space, it …

Read more…

Morning rounds in the SICU

Physician voices

My first day as a surgery intern

Richard Patterson, MD

September 23, 2012Sep 23, 20122

Virtually every medical school graduate immediately enters at least three years of post-graduate medical training (internship-residency). The exceptions are those who: 1. combine the MD with a JD or PhD; 2. leverage the not-yet-dry diploma into a post as health…

Virtually every medical school graduate immediately enters at least three years of post-graduate medical training (internship-residency). The exceptions are those who:

1. combine the MD with a JD or PhD;

2. leverage the not-yet-dry diploma into a post as health policy advisor to a state or federal legislator, usually one of Dad’s chums;

3. are named Michael Crichton.

Commencement is in late spring, so post-graduate training begins on July 1. Every year my surgery …

Read more…

My first day as a surgery intern

Physician voices

As I reach the end of my career, I empathize more with my patients

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

September 20, 2012Sep 20, 20127

As I contemplate retirement from clinical practice as a general surgeon, something I've been doing for over 41 years including residency, I've been having some unsettling thoughts. Like many physicians, I've tried to stay somewhat emotionally detached from my patients.…

As I contemplate retirement from clinical practice as a general surgeon, something I’ve been doing for over 41 years including residency, I’ve been having some unsettling thoughts.

Like many physicians, I’ve tried to stay somewhat emotionally detached from my patients. You must maintain some distance in order to be able to make tough decisions and to keep on doing surgery for so long.

I have written in a previous blog about the …

Physician voices

Remember the Professionalism APGAR during times of stress

Dawn Baker, MD

September 17, 2012Sep 17, 20123

What does it mean to be a professional? And how do we maintain our professionalism at a time when things such as stress, burnout, and caregiver fatigue threaten our motivation? As an anesthesiologist, the ability to remain professional in many scenarios is something I constantly strive for. Aside from how it affects my relationships with the interdisciplinary OR team, professionalism is an important attribute given that my job requires patients …

Physician voices

The ethics of conducting a pelvic exam on an anesthetized woman

Peter Ubel, MD

September 12, 2012Sep 12, 201215

I felt a woman’s uterus without her permission. How this happened, and why I thought I had done the right thing at the time, tells us something important about medical education and shows us why doctor/patient interactions often play out…

To understand my inappropriate actions, you need to know something about the physical exams that we physicians conduct on our patients. More specifically, about the …

Physician voices

Why I’m thankful for my son’s surgery team

Anesthesioboist T., MD

September 6, 2012Sep 6, 20126

My son had been having episodes of belly pain right around his belly button for several weeks. I watched and waited. Between these bouts of mild abdominal pain he was completely fine – healthy appetite, active, happy. But I had a feeling something was brewing. I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. The disease finally declared itself: several nights ago his belly pain was severe and unremitting. He …

Physician voices

Why doctors complain: A history of physician income

Richard Patterson, MD

September 2, 2012Sep 2, 201211

We’re not going for sympathy here. Doctors as a whole enjoy less sympathy than many other professional groups (members of Congress enjoy the least, I would think), and that’s probably appropriate. They have high incomes and many prerogatives and rank highly in esteem polls as individuals, if not as a group. It’s not where they are that is causing the grieving, it is where they are coming from.

Let’s deal with …

Physician voices

Only trained physicians should provide interventional pain services

American Society of Anesthesiologists & Asokumar Buvanendran, MD

August 29, 2012Aug 29, 201221

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. As an anesthesiologist and pain physician, I understand the complexity of pain management procedures required for chronic pain disease. Chronic pain is a disease like others such as…

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

As an anesthesiologist and pain physician, I understand the complexity of pain management procedures required for chronic pain disease. Chronic pain is a disease like others such as hypertension and cardiac disease. Several interventional pain procedures can be dangerous, even in the hands of the most specially trained interventional physicians, as they are performed near or around the spinal …

Physician voices

Inducing anesthesia on YouTube: How many ways is this wrong?

Karen S. Sibert, MD

August 24, 2012Aug 24, 2012

Really, sir. What were you thinking? I’m talking to you—the anesthesia provider (I hate to think that you might be an anesthesiologist) who allowed himself to be videotaped while a patient injected his own induction dose of propofol. Most people…

Really, sir. What were you thinking?

I’m talking to you—the anesthesia provider (I hate to think that you might be an anesthesiologist) who allowed himself to be videotaped while a patient injected his own induction dose of propofol. Most people know something about propofol even if they aren’t in the anesthesia business–that’s the medication that Dr. Conrad Murray gave Michael Jackson to everyone’s sorrow.

I would insert the link here, but the …

Physician voices

Doctors in no win situations: Damned if you do or don’t

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

August 17, 2012Aug 17, 20123

Here’s a little story from the early days of my first job as a chairman of surgery. Shortly after I assumed the role of surgical chairman in a community teaching hospital at the ripe old age of 40 and having…

Here’s a little story from the early days of my first job as a chairman of surgery.

Shortly after I assumed the role of surgical chairman in a community teaching hospital at the ripe old age of 40 and having absolutely no administrative experience, I visited a mentor of mine whom I had known since I was a medical student. He had been serving in a similar role at a larger …

Physician voices

Work-life balance in medicine: Is it possible?

Karen S. Sibert, MD

August 13, 2012Aug 13, 20127

Unless you’ve lately returned from a retreat at a remote Cistercian abbey, if you’re interested at all in women’s issues you’ve probably read Anne-Marie Slaughter’s recent article in the Atlantic, “Why Women Still Can’t Have It All.” The author eloquently tells how she left her dream job in the State Department as the first woman director of policy planning in order to return to her husband, her …

Medical education

Why do we teach surgery the same way we did 40 years ago?

Skeptical Scalpel, MD

July 27, 2012Jul 27, 2012

When I was a surgical residency program director, I often wondered what the establishment, you know those guys who ran surgical education, was thinking. Some may remember the rule that a resident had to see at least 50% of the patients he operated on in the clinic or the private surgeon’s office in order to claim credit for having done the case.

There was the emphasis that still exists today on …

Physician voices

Dr. Google is currently only medical student Google

Linda Pourmassina, MD

July 27, 2012Jul 27, 2012

A few days ago, I came across an article entitled “Calling Dr. Google” by Jeff Jarvis. The writer describes his experience “Googling” his symptoms and finding that the internet brought him the correct diagnosis. He uses his personal story of…

One would hope that the argument that you cannot find any trustworthy information on the web is …

Physician voices

How much does surgery cost? About $147 a minute

Nate Johnson

July 17, 2012Jul 17, 20129

The patient had a large abscess surrounding his spleen. On a large screen in the middle of the operating room, I watched a surgeon drain the fluid collection and remove the organ with small metal tools. I remember the surgeon…

I remember the surgeon navigating the complex anatomy with alacrity, handling the laparoscopic equipment with expert finesse, and quickly and confidently answering the battery of questions from the assisting medical student. To a young and …

Physician voices

Obstetric anesthesiologists not only relieve pain, they save lives

American Society of Anesthesiologists & Craig M. Palmer, MD

June 30, 2012Jun 30, 2012

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. As an obstetric anesthesiologist, it is my responsibility to make sure expectant mothers are comfortable during labor and delivery. It is important women understand their pain management options…

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com.

As an obstetric anesthesiologist, it is my responsibility to make sure expectant mothers are comfortable during labor and delivery. It is important women understand their pain management options during childbirth by having discussions with their anesthesiologist and obstetrician. However, as an obstetric anesthesiologist, my role often extends beyond merely being a “pain reliever.”

While most labors and deliveries go very smoothly, …

Physician voices

Is not seeing patients the answer for many doctors?

Karen S. Sibert, MD

June 29, 2012Jun 29, 201211

We’ve come to a sorry pass in American medicine when physicians are willing to spend a lot of money to attend conferences—not to learn how to become better physicians, but to find a way out of the pit of clinical…

Few of us have the charisma (or chutzpah) to make a living in medical show business, like Sanjay Gupta or Mehmet Oz. But apparently any physician today can be clever …

Physician voices

Why I am a surgeon

David Gelber, MD

June 27, 2012Jun 27, 2012

An excerpt from Behind the Mask. Why do you do it? Do what? Get up in the middle of the night? Rush in to the hospital to patch mangled bodies, sew holes closed, stick my finger in a dike spewing…

An excerpt from Behind the Mask.

Why do you do it?

Do what? Get up in the middle of the night? Rush in to the hospital to patch mangled bodies, sew holes closed, stick my finger in a dike spewing blood and, hopefully, repair what’s broken and allow some unfortunate soul to live and love another day? A good question. I could have been a pediatrician, almost became one as a matter …

Read more…

Why I am a surgeon

Surgery and surgeons

Articles, page 57

Real physician voices, twice a week

The Podcast

Latest episodes

Most popular

The Podcast

Latest episodes

Most popular