Surgery has a reputation for being mean despite the excellent #HammerItOut , #HeforShe and Operate With Respect campaigns. Those focus mostly on surgical colleagues treating each other with some decency.  Surgeons working perhaps forget that students are literally there to learn, and paying very dearly for the experience. 

In this penultimate episode we recall a less than positive experience in theatre and throw some shade at Exeter and their fancy dancy Hip. We also talk about the flow state and the talent and brilliance of watching a really good surgeon at work.

Not technically surgery but obs and gynae is a surgical speciality so we are allowing it. 
In Vitro Fertilisation is still a controversial step towards creating a family despite developments in technology and wider popularisation of IVF/Egg freezing. 

IVF is expensive and its allocation to people trying to conceive can cause distress. How much medical/support should people be given to help them conceive? Are doctors playing God? Does life begin at conception? Listen now to find the answer to none of these questions. 

In this episode we discuss a piece of surgical history: Vagotomies.

Originally done for peptic ulcer disease, this is now an almost obsolete surgery. What will surgery look like in another 20 years? Will Interventional radiologists take over everything? Will Rafiah remember how to pronounce vagotomy? So many questions in just 10 short minutes.

Day 8 and Whipple's Procedure

The only eponymous surgery in the whole list. 

The honour belongs to Dr Allen Whipple because it seems he was an absolute legend.  Whipple was a bold surgeon who just removed most of the pancreas and small intestine instead of taking bit of organ piecemeal. His operation pioneered in 1945 and developed into the 40s is still a formidable operation close to a century later.

This was the surgery that tipped Lara to the shiny cutty side. It seems every med student has a moment where they realise that surgery is or really isn't for them. 

In what is turning into an unintendedly sexy theme we talk about stoma surgery, breaking bad news and living life. A short episode to welcome you into the New Year 

Stoma creation is a surgery that does necessitate some lifestyle changes but the prevalence of social media means that people can now see people who look like them, have the same conditions as them having full and rich lives. 
Stomas are often done as part of a cancer treatment although they are used for other diseases. Telling someone that they may need a stoma for the rest of their life can be a difficult conversation. There are difficult conversations everyday in medicine and when is the right time to have one, especially when there is an optional element. 

 

The humble lap chole rounds out the 2020 portion of this series. The laprascopic cholestectomy, a staple of routine procedures. This elective operation has gone from common to almost an endangered procedure in these pandemic stricken times. 
We end the year looking forward to the return of elective procedures and wondering what 2021 will hold for surgery. 

We also get of topic to talk about surgical jobs as a junior and give a heartfelt thanks to the nurses, OTs physios and HCAs that keep wards running. 

How soon after getting your heart plumbed can you get ahem busy.
In true CP fashion Lara and Rafiah get distracted from the magic of cardiac bypass and talk about how to get freaky after surgery. 

Does medicine equip us to really look after our patients as people, or is it just lip service? There are benefits and downsides to seeing your patients as fully rounded people. 

Also does anyone ever know what the abbreviations in medicine stand for?

Another short and sweet one, we start with a fishy pun and continue in the same calibre. 

Burns can be a life changing injury and options that can restore skin integrity can save lives. Although not immediately surgical the implications that xenografts have for plastic surgery could mean more options for complex cases. 

Black flat black noses. Long pointed hook noses. Noses come in all shapes rhinoplasty is one of the most popular cosmetic procedures and over millions of noses and thousands of years we have moved away from simple flaps to minimally invasive approaches. 

Unlike some noses and Lara's forehead this is a small one. 

It is Day 2 of our 12 surgeries of Christmas and we are taking a good long look with Corneal Transplants. 

Eye surgery is some of the oldest surgery documented with 'couching' (pushing the lens into the eyeball) being written about 3000 years ago. Corneal transplants are usually done for medical reasons but there are some people who have corneal prosthetics for aesthetic reasons. Corneal transplants are unusual as the eye has a special immune status, and this contributes to corneal transplants being THE commonest transplant surgery. 

In this mini-sode Lara makes a mistake and Rafiah is grossed out by your feet