Does Bed, Bath, and Beyond Carry These?
I had a great time on call (again), this time we happened to see 3 gallbladder cases in a row: one with cholecytitis and two with probable choledocholithiasis. It was a good learning experience, I think, because I have since assigned faces to these amorphous disease monographs.
Two other exciting events took place yesterday: 1) I scrubbed in on a laparoscopic splenectomy and got to see it done with great skill by an expert (it really makes a difference when the surgeon has a plan 5 steps ahead of time), and I got to do the closing sutures... and 2) I got to scrub in on a hip replacement! Here, let me describe some wonderfully gory detail since I haven't done that in a while and want to see if the red on my screen's pixels still works (Ed's note: Storbag is turning 4 in Feb (Meta-Ed's note: Storbag is my computer)).
Ask our old friend Joe Everydude how to replace a hip, and he'll probably sit there for a minute asking himself why on Earth one would do such a thing. Then he would tell you that you probably have to dislocate it first so you can do some work in there. Well, Mr. Everydude is exactly right. You have to dislocate it so that you can saw off the old, "bad" (scientific term) bone with a bone saw, and then you have to put in the new bone, which is made of titanium and, when brand new, is quite shiny.
The very coolest part, though, I thought, was that before redoing the femur, you need to make the socket (of Ball and Socket), or acetabulum, ready for the metal acetabulum you would like to insert in its place. To do this, you use an instrument which is represented by what I like to call a "visual euphamism" in this video, which loosely illustrates this particular portion of the surgery. I can tell you that in real life, this instrument much more strongly resembles a cheese grater, except for being parabolic, and on steroids. Oh well, visual euphamism.
The instrument is a parabolic acetabular reamer, and you can see a bunch of them, in different sizes and lined up all neatly and innocently, right here.
They would probably make a half-decent housewarming gift for someone who loves shredded cheese.
Unfortunately, I don't think Stryker has a wedding registry.
Two other exciting events took place yesterday: 1) I scrubbed in on a laparoscopic splenectomy and got to see it done with great skill by an expert (it really makes a difference when the surgeon has a plan 5 steps ahead of time), and I got to do the closing sutures... and 2) I got to scrub in on a hip replacement! Here, let me describe some wonderfully gory detail since I haven't done that in a while and want to see if the red on my screen's pixels still works (Ed's note: Storbag is turning 4 in Feb (Meta-Ed's note: Storbag is my computer)).
Ask our old friend Joe Everydude how to replace a hip, and he'll probably sit there for a minute asking himself why on Earth one would do such a thing. Then he would tell you that you probably have to dislocate it first so you can do some work in there. Well, Mr. Everydude is exactly right. You have to dislocate it so that you can saw off the old, "bad" (scientific term) bone with a bone saw, and then you have to put in the new bone, which is made of titanium and, when brand new, is quite shiny.
The very coolest part, though, I thought, was that before redoing the femur, you need to make the socket (of Ball and Socket), or acetabulum, ready for the metal acetabulum you would like to insert in its place. To do this, you use an instrument which is represented by what I like to call a "visual euphamism" in this video, which loosely illustrates this particular portion of the surgery. I can tell you that in real life, this instrument much more strongly resembles a cheese grater, except for being parabolic, and on steroids. Oh well, visual euphamism.
The instrument is a parabolic acetabular reamer, and you can see a bunch of them, in different sizes and lined up all neatly and innocently, right here.
They would probably make a half-decent housewarming gift for someone who loves shredded cheese.
Unfortunately, I don't think Stryker has a wedding registry.
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