Medical student amazement

Well bloggers, I was on call last night and we had an unusal case of multiple neck lacerations = 21 in total wtih a cumulative length of 49 cm. The third year medical student on call was "amazed" that such a wound could be self-inflicted. We spent time in the OR doing the appropriate exploration of a zone 2 neck wound and then multi-layered repair. It is always refreshing to realize that what we do as surgeons can be viewed as amazing by those who do not regularly deal with the challenges of the surgical area. JTE.

ACS Clinical Congress

Well fellow bloggers, I am at the 90th Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons. The meeting seems better organized than in previous years. Also, being in such a large convention center makes the meeting seem roomier. No problems from the fire marshall like in S.F. Well, the idea of the Sunday convocation seems to make much more sense than having it on Thursday. The exhibits are as good as usual. Some very interesting sessions so far. The session on the surgeon and the law was quite good. Today I went to the session put on by the informatics committee. There is really great potential for the college in this arena; especially for education. The scientific posters were a pleasant surprise now that they are being reviewed rather than just accepted automatically. Another session I attended was by the program committee on tissue adhesives. This was a very well done scientific session. Also, went to the Scudder oration by Richardson. He obviously had fun doing the review, but I was shocked that he omitted any mention of the hemostatic products such as fibrin sealants. Anyway, two more days to go then back to work. JTE.