Thursday, January 20, 2011

700 Club!

I'm now a member! The 700 gram vaginal hysterectomy club - which is a very large uterus indeed - the average uterus is around 50 g give or take.

I'm aiming for the kilo club...5 years out from residency and getting better and braver with every difficult surgery. But it also comes from having good assistants - I had my favorite first assist and an excellent scrub tech. Both of whom could anticipate what I was thinking (other than the typical #$%^&&$%#$#). I had said pre-op to the first assist "We'll just go slow and steady and know our landmarks...it's going to be a bitch of a case." Now, normally, I'm a fast surgeon. I know that the surgery desk sorta counts on my room being the add-on room on Wednesdays, since I usually finish ahead of schedule. But yesterday, I finished right on time (my first case was done an hour faster than expected, but this case took an hour longer than booked). But surgery done right is better than surgery done fast (both is best).

We ended up with a completely detached uterus that would not fit through the vaginal incision. We spent more time removing fibroids and cutting the uterus into pieces that would fit than we did actually detaching the stupid thing!

It's one of those cases where you hate yourself in the middle of the case (WHY did I schedule this one like this?) only to feel really good afterwards.

6 comments:

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Have you considered other hobbies? These things don't look good over a fireplace.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm....just checked my path report. Mine was just over 900 grams. No wonder my gyno was so proud of my incision.

I am impressed for you. I am sure the patient appreciated the extra effort - at least she should! Congratulations.

rlbates said...

Well done!

Anonymous said...

Having had a vag hyst in August, I'm sure your pt appreciates your effort! Now I'm wondering what mine weighed...only comment I got was prior to surgery that it "feels like a bag of marbles".

Anonymous said...

a good first assist is better than a good first sargeant. they can turn a brutal day into joy.

Anonymous said...

I'm with Grumpy - what is the going trophy or plaque these days that represents such a case?!? Maybe as the comment above reads "feels like a bag of marbles..' you need 700 gm of marbles in a cool shaped glass vase..and it wouldn't look quite as brash as an engraved "7-hundy club" plaque?!!
Awesome job, by the way!
New Zealand Reader x