Week 2 - Huang

In week 2, I continued to observe Dr. Scherr's surgeries and got to see the da Vinci Surgical System in action. Dr. Scherr used this system to perform prostatectomies. I found the most interesting part of the surgery to be at the beginning when the system is being set up. After the patient is anesthesized, the surgeons make very small incisions at marked spots on the patient's stomach, and the da Vinci surgical arms are inserted inside, along with an endoscope. Thereafter, two surgeons stood with the patient to guide and move the arms when needed, while Dr. Scherr sat at a console in the corner of the room and remotely controlled the robotic arms. From the endoscope view, I could see that Dr. Scherr could make very precise movements with the arms, therefore allowing him to pay close attention to details that open surgery cannot offer. The arms had little tweezers that could grab onto tissues as well as a heating tip to carefully cut apart the tissue. From watching the endoscope view that is displayed on screens all around the OR, all I could see was a big bloody mess, and I was very impressed that the surgeons knew exactly what blood vessel/orifice/organ tissue was in view.

Other than robotic surgery, I also observed Dr. Scherr performing some cystoscopies, where an endoscope is inserted into the bladder through the urethra. A notable case was a patient in his 80's that had an enlarged prostate that caused him urination problems. As we saw through the endoscope, his bladder was completely full, so Dr. Scherr had to draw out all the urine to empty the bladder. It must have taken 20-30 small vials to completely empty the bladder... it was a lot of urine!

In week 3, I hope to observe some other departments in action, such as neurosurgery, heart surgery, and the neonatal ICU. Also, after reading Bo's blog, I am quite intrigued by his experiences with "fierce" nipple reconstruction, so perhaps I could fit that into my schedule as well.

Patient Quote of the Week:
Doctor: You've got a lot of urine in here, Mr. _____.
Patient: Yeah there must be pee from 1987 in there.