« Another Lazy Weekend | Main | File Under Misc. »
April 18, 2005
Medical Fallacies
Yesterday's entry was almost forgotten. I'll have to admit that I was already in bed before I realized that the SunRider roof on the Jeep was still open. So after going down to fix that I remembered I had also forgotten to blog. In my haste, I didn't mention Happy B-day to Ms Garner. So, Happy belated B-day to Ms Garner. Not that she reads this.
If you caught Greys Anatomy last night, you caught a glimpse of what I get to see in the OR and what can happen if you aren't careful at my other job. Framing nails aside, I was quite shocked to see prostate work on the show..because I thought that the whole area of [the human body of] the procedure was a little too much for tv (especially only four episodes into the season.) The procedure they were performing is NOT the one I am involved with. It's just happens to be in the same anatomical place, with the same basic setup.
I'm not 100% clear what they were supposed to be doing, other than removing cancer. Which, by the way, they weren't doing as far as I can tell (IANAD). They looked to be preforming a TURP (the 'gold standard' for treating BPH). This procedure will most likely not leave you impotent. On the monitor behind Izzie looked to be an actual prostate being resected (very obviously not by the doctor who wasn't paying a bit of attention to the procedure). The difference between the TURP and the Greenlight is that they were actually taking out full chunks of tissue with a loop. With the laser, it's all vaporized..so no chunks. The doctors I've seen so far also don't hold the scope straight up an down. I'm thinking that would make the work a bit more challenging. I guess that's how you have to do it for tv..to make it more camera friendly.
Posted by mhader at April 18, 2005 9:17 PM
Comments
Soooo... when the prostate tissue is vaporized, technically there are bits-o-prostate floating in the air that you breathe, right?
Posted by: Jonathan at April 19, 2005 12:52 AM