Plastic surgery
Hello,
I'm half way through 2 weeks with the plastic surgery department now. Compared to colorectal surgery, the attachment has been astonishingly organised. We were welcomed and given a personalised tinetable when we arrived, although we don't have to stick to it if we don't want to. The surgeons are all happy to teach and even the consultants have been far more willing to talk to students than any others I've met so far.
Last week I started off on the wards, taking histories from patients to get an idea of the variety of surgery that takes place in plastics and helping the house officer with jobs like cannulating veins. Then I went along to minor ops and saw various lumps and bumps being removed and the holes grafted over (and in one case, an ear being reconstructed). And I've also spent a few days in the operating theatres watching and where possible assisting with surgery.
I was able to get some hands-on experience of a mastectomy and breast reconstruction case, which involved some amazing microsurgery to reconnect the blood vessels of a flap of skin taken from the abdomen to the chest wall (unfortunately it also involved me holding a retractor very still at a very awkward angle for a very long time with a surgeon leaning on my arm very hard!). Despite the ocassional discomfort, helping practically with surgery allows you to get much closer and get more of an idea of the intricacies of the surgery than just standing back and watching. Getting involved hasn't always added to my view of the operation though - during one case last week a vital peice of equipment for making a feeding hole into the stomach of a child went missing and I was instructed to run to the other end of the hospital (looking rather silly in my surgical scrubs!) to get another one, but when I got back the original piece had already been found and I'd missed seeing what it was used for!
One of the most extrordinary operations I've watched was a reconstruction of a congenitally deformed hand, requiring the hand to be almost completely separated from the arm before being repositioned and pinned in place. Other, slightly less dramatic, operations have included the removal of extra toes and the bending of broken fingers back into place. And next week I'm hoping to see some head and neck cases too.
Plastic surgery is certainly one of the most varied specialities I've seen so far. The department has a lot of paediatric as well as adult patients, and just wandering around the wards you see everything from thumbs made from toes, to babies with most of their brains outside their skulls in encephaloceles, and people lacking in large portions of their faces following gunshot wounds. It has also provided me with an interesting breast reconstruction case to write a report on, as part of my assessment for the surgery attachment.
In fact, I should get on with writing that now...
Bye!
I'm half way through 2 weeks with the plastic surgery department now. Compared to colorectal surgery, the attachment has been astonishingly organised. We were welcomed and given a personalised tinetable when we arrived, although we don't have to stick to it if we don't want to. The surgeons are all happy to teach and even the consultants have been far more willing to talk to students than any others I've met so far.
Last week I started off on the wards, taking histories from patients to get an idea of the variety of surgery that takes place in plastics and helping the house officer with jobs like cannulating veins. Then I went along to minor ops and saw various lumps and bumps being removed and the holes grafted over (and in one case, an ear being reconstructed). And I've also spent a few days in the operating theatres watching and where possible assisting with surgery.
I was able to get some hands-on experience of a mastectomy and breast reconstruction case, which involved some amazing microsurgery to reconnect the blood vessels of a flap of skin taken from the abdomen to the chest wall (unfortunately it also involved me holding a retractor very still at a very awkward angle for a very long time with a surgeon leaning on my arm very hard!). Despite the ocassional discomfort, helping practically with surgery allows you to get much closer and get more of an idea of the intricacies of the surgery than just standing back and watching. Getting involved hasn't always added to my view of the operation though - during one case last week a vital peice of equipment for making a feeding hole into the stomach of a child went missing and I was instructed to run to the other end of the hospital (looking rather silly in my surgical scrubs!) to get another one, but when I got back the original piece had already been found and I'd missed seeing what it was used for!
One of the most extrordinary operations I've watched was a reconstruction of a congenitally deformed hand, requiring the hand to be almost completely separated from the arm before being repositioned and pinned in place. Other, slightly less dramatic, operations have included the removal of extra toes and the bending of broken fingers back into place. And next week I'm hoping to see some head and neck cases too.
Plastic surgery is certainly one of the most varied specialities I've seen so far. The department has a lot of paediatric as well as adult patients, and just wandering around the wards you see everything from thumbs made from toes, to babies with most of their brains outside their skulls in encephaloceles, and people lacking in large portions of their faces following gunshot wounds. It has also provided me with an interesting breast reconstruction case to write a report on, as part of my assessment for the surgery attachment.
In fact, I should get on with writing that now...
Bye!
posted by Jane Davis @ 9:08 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home