Tales from the Italian OR

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Ciao...

Today I watched surgery on a pt with Arnold-Chiari I malformation (the posterior cranial fossa is too small to accomodate the cerebellum so it begins to herniate out of the foramen magnum) and associated severe syringomyelia. We may think it's rare, but at the institute, they see it quite frequently and perform a few of these surgeries per week. Also watching the surgery with me were an italian second year resident (he barely ever scrubs and never operates) and a Chinese Neurosurgeon who is at the institute getting his masters in Neurophysiology (EEG, etc... except he thinks this is really boring so he always coming into the OR to watch instead... how does that work out??!).

Here are some interesting things I learned from my OR experience today:

* In addition to performing an occipital craniotomy and a C1 lamanectomy (more space to accomodate the cerebellum), they then make a dural incision in the cervical region and place a dural patch (again to help alleviate pressure and compression of the cord). Interestingly, the dural patch is made of bovine pericardium. This is called a dural extension plasty.
* Okay, now to the more interesting stuff 😊 Usually, when removing a tumor, the surgeons place loads of Surgiseal (no clue how to actually spell this) in the empty surgical cavity to help stop the bleeding. Well, according to the chairman of Neurosurg, when he first started... they used to send someone outside to KILL A PIGEON. They then used a piece of pigeon muscle in the surgical cavity for coagulation! Crazy, huh!
*A little bit about how they train in china: 5 years med school, 5 years general surgery (for anyone who wants to do any type of surgery), then you pick a specialty and purse it for 3 more years.
*Ha- this is GREAT. Apparently I have befriended the Chinese neurosurgeon because he feels like he can share things with me... he told me that "that surgery with the eyes" (ie- optho) is a good thing for lady surgeons to do because the rest of surgery is just so tiring and stressful... men are better able to "take" that. (lets put it this way... he's lucky he was chinese and spoke only mediocre english... otherwise I would have had my way with him! geez!)


just another interesting day in the OR... 😊 = 😊

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Photos

me just after the OR
first plus about doing surgery in Italy: you can wear dangly earrings... all the ladies do it[:)]! Also, LOVE the italian surgical caps! They\'re a combo of the guys caps and the gals puffy thing. perfect fit.

my new friend!
the chinese neurosurgeon. seriously... it's probably comical to those watching us... we sit together and try to communicate with his broken english and my lack of neurosurgical experience! He's nice and tries to teach me, though

the MASTER at work
Chairman of surgery at the Institute. aka- speedy gonzales

the anesthesia team
you can tell from this picture that they're so NICE... they're always "Ciao"ing me and giving me stools and smiling. [:)]

me peering in...
[:)]

Comments

[Robin]

You're adorable!
Oh my god, you're so cute in your little cap and earrings! I'm so excited to start my own travels - we'll have to keep up with each other because we are bound to have tons of stories. I leave tuesday for thailand. And you have to email me when you get MATCHED!!!! You know how much I'm hoping we end up in the same place. Love you tons, sweetie! Keep up the awesome work.