Two surgeries about Hernia

On April, 15th, When I went to the internship, I saw two surgeries as usual. It had been a long time since I didn't go because of spring break and other reason. Both of surgeries were about Hernia. The first one was Hernia repair and the second one was about inguinal Hernia.

Hernia repair refers to a surgical operation for the correction of a hernia (a bulging of internal organs or tissues through a defect in the wall of a body cavity).

Since I started this internship, I saw so many surgeries about Hernia. I thought it is because that I usually go to the O.R. where the same doctor is most of times. But, I still wondered about how many people get Hernia surgeries statistically.

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, approximately five million Americans have hernias. Hernias in the groin area (inguinal hernias) are most common in men, primarily because of the unsupported space left in the groin after the testicles descend into the scrotum during development. Hernias in the femoral area, at the top of the thigh, occur most often in women. They commonly result from pregnancy and childbirth. Children can also suffer from hernias. Some people also develop hernias at the site of previous surgical incisions, or in the area of the navel.

I really hope less people get HERNIA.

X-RAY surgery

Today, I saw two surgeries. The first one was about Hernia (may be 4th time? for me to see) and the second one was about infusing a string into the body from the heart side by using x-ray machine. I got to wear an apron to protect my body from x-ray machine. The doctor was using an infuser to reach some point, which I really couldn't understand that well. Today was the only day when I couldn't fully understand even though the doctor was trying his best to explain to me. I knew this day would come to me one day and today was the day. However, I experienced a lot of valuable things such as wearing an apron as other people do in the O.R. (being a part of them felt so precious) and getting this Hernia patch from the doctor.

This is Hernia Repair Patch. I was really surprised by how strong the texture of this material is.

This picture shows how the doctor was infusing the equipment.

This is how x-ray machine looks like. There was one doctor who was in charge of this machine all the time throughout the surgery as taking photos (like screenshots) and following the surgeon's instruction.

p.s. It was really interesting how both I and some doctors knew people who graduated from my school or even who attend my school now!

Today was another fantastic day!

2/25/2014 Shoulder Lipoma Excision

It was a busy day!

There were a lot of medical students who came to see surgeries. It was interesting to hear that they never saw the surgery before as medical students. I felt honored again to have this such opportunity as a high school student. Since the O.R. was full of people including me, I could not see the surgery right away. After a while, I was told to go into this room. There would be Lipoma Excision surgery. The patient had this big lipoma on the right shoulder. 

As I expected, it was awesome. The length of the lipoma was 20cm, which was huge one. I thought it would take a long time to get rid of it only based on the size. On the other hand, it took very short time to operate. It took only 20 minutes! It was crazy!

According to Procedure Clinic website, A lipoma is a slow-growing, fatty lump that’s most often situated between your skin and the underlying muscle layer. Often a lipoma is easy to identify because it moves readily with slight finger pressure. It’s doughy to touch and usually not tender. You may have more than one lipoma. Lipomas can occur at any age, but they’re most often detected during middle age.

Lipomas are:

• Located just under your skin. They commonly occur in the neck, shoulders, back, abdomen, arms and thighs.
• Soft and doughy to the touch. They also move easily with slight finger pressure.
• Generally small. Lipomas are typically less than 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter, but they can grow larger.
• Sometimes painful. Lipomas can be painful if they grow and press on nearby nerves, or if they contain many blood vessels.

Hernia Repair / total hip replacement

Today, I was jumping around the O.R. from one surgery to another one and another one to the other one. Therefore, I saw a lot of surgeries. The first one was about hernia repair. This one happened in one man's inguinal ring. Doctors didn't know why this one happened. Again, I realized today that doctors do not pay attention too much on the cause but the result! Doctors were asking me where I was from and I said that I am from Korea. Everyone was surprised and excited about the fact that I am korean, which was interesting. They said that my English was better than their korean, which was funny. One female doctor was talking about how much she loves korean food and so on. It was exciting and the moment to realize that doctors are humans too.

The most awesome thing happened today was the fact that I found a korean female surgeon in the O.R.! I saw her last name on the board which shows the schedule of the surgeries with doctors' names right next to. I immediately realized that her name was korean common last name. I asked the nurse who was sitting at the desk and she said that she is korean. I was so excited and eager to meet her!

I had a chance to talk to her for quite a long time before she started operating. Surprisingly, she said that she was about to come to my school from other state. It was such a coincidence! I was so proud that she was a surgeon as a "korean" female in U.S. (even though she was born here). She was operating with microscopes in ears. Therefore, I did not have any chance to see that surgery.

She told me that I can stop by her anytime!


The second surgery that I saw from the outside of the O.R. was about total hip replacement. It was really violent because there were four doctors standing around the patient whose hip was widely open and one doctor was using a hammer to push something in. It was orthopedics world, which was amazing to observe. One nursing student asked me to come in and see after that one ends. Due to the danger of infection, doctors do not let people come in in the middle of the surgery especially students and observers like me.

I hope that I can observe some replacement surgery next time if there is any chance!

Laparoscopic inguinal Hernia

This surgery was the hardest one to understand because I was hardly able to tell what was going on. There were a lot of new doctors. The interesting thing for me was that the patient was asian. One young looking PA was nicely talking to me after the surgery ended. She said that I could ask her anything about the surgery and she understood if it was hard to understand the surgery because that surgery was actually hard one to understand for other doctors too. I asked her two questions about what exactly "Hernia" was and what were looking like spider webs. 

she answered thoroughly and nicely. 

Hernia is basically the one that is dislocated from the place where the part of the organ should be located.

According to the dictionary, hernia is a condition in which part of an organ is displaced and protrudes through the wall of the cavity containing it, which is pretty close to how I understood by listening to PA's explanation. 

The answer for the second question was a fascia which is s a layer of fibrous tissue.

They really do look like spider silky webs. (It took me forever to find this word because I didn't know how to spell this word but the sound.)

The second surgery that I could only see the beginning part because of time was about one grandmother who had to get rid of ovary and fallopian tube. She had to spread her legs on the operating table, which means I could see her virgina. I didn't find out the reason of her taking the surgery. It was scary but amazing when I saw her getting under anesthesia in 2 minutes after an anesthesiologist injected the anesthetic drugs. 

BLEPH surgery (Blepharoplasty)

The surgery I saw today was about eyelids called Blepharoplasty. It was really interesting because I've heard of this surgery a lot of times when I was in Korea. I knew that people with saggy eyelids need to get this surgery to get better eye vision. The sad news in korea is that there are a lot of young people even students who love to get this surgery as to get double eyelids. I always wanted to see how this surgery goes and eventually I saw it! It was such a remarkable day for me! 

People who are old usually need to take this surgery to get better vision but not perfect one.

The patient kept moving because of body remain reaction towards pain such as injection on his eyes to make that part num. Even though anesthetist injected medicine to make him anesthetized, it was interesting to see him keeping moving. However, doctors didn't seem surprised. They were saying that he was better than the other patient who was moving extremely violently.

Doctors who I worked with today were really nice and humorous. They welcomed me really warmly and explained thoroughly. The surgeon even asked me to come out of the operating room and showed me while he was scrubbing his hands. It was awesome to see scrubbing right in front of me which I only saw from TV shows or pictures. He explained step by step only for me. He even told me to come anytime! I was really happy and felt thankful! 

P.S. I also had a chance to talk about lasik surgery because I said that I would like to get that surgery to be away from glasses. The doctor explained so well that I now know what exactly that surgery is about. Basically, the doctor adjust the thickness of the lense to make sure that the reflection of the light will hit right on the choroid which is located in the back of the eye.

Watch this video for the further information

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCszUm0Pu_c

Knee Arthroscopy

Knee Arthroscopy

Due to a lot of assignment and SAT, it took a while to post this one. The surgery that I saw on January 21 was about knee. This little girl had knee muscle problem which made her uncomfortable walk or run. In other words, her knee muscle was too loose that it was moving easily. The doctor was trying to pull two strands of muscle to tightly hold the muscle which was loose. Since the nurse told me before going into the O.R. that this surgery was with arthroscopy, I was expecting to see the machine. However, there was no any machine but passionate doctor. I asked him why this happened to this little girl and he said he didn't know. He said, "I don't know why this happened but I know what I'm doing and How to fix it." His line was so impressing. I will never forget what he said about being a surgeon. I learned that you don't have to know the reason for injuries but you just need to know how to fix it and make that person's life better. Thanks to doctors' thorough explanations about the surgery, I again enjoyed the day and learned a lot of things.

This is how the surgery goes with the use of arthroscopy.