Week 3

This week I finally got to observe surgery!

First I saw the removal of brain tumors with Nery and Dr. Schwartz. The first patient had a 1 inch left temporal mass, which they removed fully intact after fully opening up the patient’s skull. A second patient had a pituitary tumor which was removed through the nose. The doctor’s had to break up the mass into pieces in order to fit it through the nostril, making it a very non-invasive method.

Another day I spent with Dan and Dr. Spector to observe a skin graft. It seems like a rather quick and straightforward procedure. The doctors first removed a mass from the patient’s left inner ankle, and then grafted a large piece of skin from their upper thigh. They placed the graft over the wound, stapled it in place, and bandaged it to heal.

           

I think the most interesting surgery I saw last week was creating a neobladder and nephrectomy with Dr. Scherr via the robotic DaVinci machine. The patient was an older man with bladder cancer. First, the doctors removed old bladder with the DaVinci and put it in a bag. The machine was then disconnected, they made a small incision next to the belly button, and then literally yanked the bag with the bladder out of the patient. They then repositioned the patient on his side to remove his non-functional kidney, also with the DaVinci. The neobladder was then created from the large intestine by cutting out a piece and folding and sewing it many times. Next they reattached the native urethra, inserted a stent, and put the whole neobladder back into the body. The DaVinci machine was reattached to sew in a couple stitches to hold it in place. Overall, this was a long 9 hour procedure but it was extremely interesting to see!