Sunday, July 12, 2009

SurgeXperiences


Welcome to another tardy edition of SurgeXperiences! It's been a killer week for me so this is probably going to be a little substandard. Apologies will be forthcoming. Operating three nights in a row after 2AM while your partner is out of town will do that to you. So excuse the spelling errors, the fractured syntax, the incoherence, the lack of any semblance of organization. Which seems to fit perfectly in the context of the former Alaskan governor's rambling resignation speech....So here it goes, just follow the damn links.

We'll start with the heavyweights.

Ramona Bates has a nice post on "Sausage Fingers", aka macrodactyly. Here's another on the prevention and treatment of skin tears. I love how she includes a bibliography at the end of all her posts. Such meticulousness is the sign of someone who knows how to close a wound beautifully. The idea of doing that myself, however, causes acute psychic pain.

Bongi had an excellent week of blogging. Grab a Castle Lager, kick back, and enjoy reading this, this, and this.

Old man Sid Schwab re-joined the fray (at least for the time being) with a couple of new posts. He reflects on trauma here and geriatric surgery here. Nice to see him dabbling in the medical blogosphere again.

Bard-Parker gives us his thoughts on Atul Gawande's New Yorker piece here on his blog Cut to Cure.

Over at Make Mine Trauma, our favorite first surgical assistant gives us her thoughts on calling doctors by their first names. I get called Jeff and Dr. Parks. I haven't ever requested one or the other. I respond to both. Whatever you're comfortable with I say...

Dr. Alice
is now a big shot thrid year resident! Read her well written diary-style blog here.

Via Kevin MD, a video on robotic surgery. The cost effectiveness gurus are going to love this robot business! Here's more on robots here from Ducknet.

From Medgadget---- a story about the largest kidney swap, involving 16 patients. Pamela Paulk blogs about the experience (she's donating to a co-worker) here.

Here's a link to a new nursing blog about carpal tunnel syndrome.

Dr. Bruce Campbell has a beautiful post here. A must read.

And you know what? That's all I can do. To all those submissions that were basically glorified ads for nursing schools and fitness instructors..... in the words of the great Alaskan stateswoman, "thanks but no thanks". Which just means I'll probably link to the them in the next Surgexperiences.

I apologize for the half assed effort. It's my third time hosting and I promise the fourth will dazzle you. That's right, dazzle.

Have a great summer.

11 comments:

rlbates said...

Thanks for a great edition!

Bongi said...

loved this edition. well done. mentioning castle lager was a nice touch.

those adds i viewed as bot generated spam and left them out too. well excluded.

Anonymous said...

Jeez Buckeye,
More Acidic bitterness than a failed highly selective Vagotomy..... Course' I'd be bitter too if my cities baseball team was already mathematically eliminated and my College Football team choked worse than Barney Frank at a Hotdog eating contest...
You need a vacation dude....

Frank

Jeffrey said...

thanks for hosting despite your busy schedule. its very much appreciated. i still enjoyed this edition despite its brevity. cheers!

Anonymous said...

Buckeye,

You need to get off the anti-Palin bandwagon.

It makes you look like a bitter old surgeon.

I'm surprised that you aren't more vocal about
your profession being taken over by a bunch of
New England politicians on party line vote with
no debate on the particulars.

You're being relegated to the equivalent of a
TV Repairman being paid Medicare scale for
garden variety Lapchole. I can train a high
school drop-out to do as good a job at this, as
any mechanic can do a 20,000 mile Valve Job
on the Swedish Vulvo!

Face it. Most surgeons are TV Repairmen. It's a
trade skill. All regulated by flowcharts and if-then-else procedures.

The real Doctors are the MD - PhDs who advance
the state of the art and the science of medicine through novel research. Everyone else is a glorified technician, who hoards information in order to get
paid for office visits. The Surgeons are simply
very highly screened technicians who have what it takes to perform a physically and mentally intricate task (not unlike a fighter pilot).

Anonymous said...

I was pretty worked up at the time I posted the last comment.

I apologize for insulting the surgery profession.

But it chaps my hide that

a) Costs are so high for procedures that are
garden variety

and

b) The politicians are going to scrap the entire
system and play roulette with a brand new system
because of it (a).

Jeffrey Parks MD FACS said...

Anon-
I almost choked on my coffee reading about how "garden variety" surgical procedures have such high costs. General surgeons get paid 60-80% of what they were paid 10-15 yrs ago on appies, gallbladders, etc. Wouldn't it be nice if you paid 1992 costs for your oil change or tire rotation?

make mine trauma said...

Wow, thanks for including my post Jeff...er, I mean, Dr. Banks! I hardly feel worthy given my recent blogging recession.

make mine trauma said...

Oops, guess if I'm gonna call you Doctor it should be with the right name. I was still laughing over anon's comment re: Palin and how high school drop-outs can perform "garden variety" lap choles. Seriously?!

And where can I buy one of them there Vulvo's?

make mine trauma said...

Now I'm not sure what I called you....did I say Dr. Banks or Dr Parks? Hmmmmm that's what I get for trying to post the day after a late OR night. Next time I'll stick to Buckeye! Feel free to not publish any or all of my comments and I'll start over!

Bruce said...

"Face it. Most surgeons are TV Repairmen. It's a trade skill."
Funny! Our OR schedule yesterday included "TV repair." I checked...the cardiac surgeons were fixing a tricuspid valve.

Thanks for including the link to my blog! I'm honored.