Recent content by womansurg

If she's been seen by a hematologist - which she has - then she has already undergone a comprehensive rule out for hypercoaguable syndromes. You indicate that no causal etiology was identified. Basically, a heme-onc is the pinnacle of IM specialty with regards to coagulopathies. Sending her...

I agree. I recall the PD at a small, but good, community program in which I had genuine interest asking me this question. When I listed some regional academic powerhouses among my interviews, he closed my file, leaned back and commented, "so, we're basically your back up plan then." For...

Surgeons practice medicine commonly, but primarily in the critically ill. A surgery residency coupled with SICU fellowship would be along the lines of what you're thinking, I believe.

Best review for ABSITE is SESAP - Surgical Education and Self Assessment Program, published by the American College of Surgeons. Consice, up to the minute, and easy to get through, in question/answer format. I always hit top quartile on ABSITEs and also got top 5th percent on actual board...

I suffered a comminuted pelvic fracture during my first year of practice and was nonambulatory for 2 months. As you can imagine, there aren't a lot of surgeries that you can do without standing. After four weeks I went back to doing sit down cases - specifically dialysis access. Naturally, I...

If you happened to catch any of Cruise's recent appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show, you'd have to conclude that he suffers from untreated bipolar disorder. The guy was so manic that he - literally - could not sit in his seat. I liked him better when he was private and mysterious, and no...

Shucks, thanks y'all. *sheepish grin* Gee, it's hard to imagine that a small defect could accomodate a large enough right to left shunt to cause death, regardless of how it was augmented by the altered physiology of the anesthetic/ventilator. But, hey, what do I know? In these young women...

Help me out here. In the absence of embolus, how is a small ASD being conjectured to have caused her death?

My hyperstimulation alter the level of anesthesia? No no, you're not paying attention - the resonse implies NO connection to the level of conciousness. That's been the argument all along. Rather, the patient is demonstrating a 'spinal reflex' and "direct...stimulation of the efferent motor axons...

Just your own sweet way...sorry I misinterpreted you. Enjoyed chatting with you.

Well, actually they do maintain medullary brainstem function, which is why the heart continues to beat, BP is maintained, etc. Otherwise they would simply be...dead. Near a nerve which conducts pain, do you suppose? Or it's that sub-q tissue to total-body-tone reflex circuit. That's one...

Oh...then...I think you just made my point in this case, at least. I'm just curious, I don't know the answer...do brain dead people arch their back and pull their arms back if struck with a whip? Also, when I take cautery to a patient's subcutaneous tissues, and a previously unresponsive...

Hell, who wants to go into interventional radiology, ENT or orthopedic surgery anyway? Just keep your options open, little buddy. You may be surprised what floats your boat in medicine. You don't want to trade four years of med school for the rest of your career doing something which is not...

I agree that anesthetized animals (people) don't cognitively process pain - as in recognizing and remembering it. However, they are still 'experiencing' it. The frog's leg will respond to stimulus of a local reflex circuit. In human's, the spinal reflexes of the lower extremities are a...