I had my first experience in the clinic this week. On Monday, I watched a procedure Dr. Vouyouka called an endovenous ablation of varicose veins. Varicose veins occur when the veins in the leg become more elastic and valves that prevent backflow malfunction. Blood ends up pooling in the leg, leading to enlarged, varicose veins.
To treat this, a catheter is first inserted into the leg and through the length of the varicose vein (usually the saphenous vein) with the help of ultrasound imaging. A laser fiber is then threaded through the catheter. When energy is applied, the tip of the laser fiber is heated up and this burns the blood vessel, causing it to scar and close up. The laser fiber is slowly pulled out of the patient (~0.2 cm/s) so that the entire vein is ablated. Blood will now be diverted to the surrounding healthy veins. During this procedure, the patient may get a funny taste in his/her mouth.
I saw another surgery with Jen. This time, Dr. Vouyouka had to clean out an infected graft in the abdominal region. Afterwards, Dr. Spector took one of the patient’s quad muscles and flipped it upwards to cover the graft, hoping to prevent re-infection.
I found that I enjoy going to the clinic more than watching the surgeries, if that’s possible. The surgeries are certainly very cool, and it’s always interesting watching surgeons work, fight, and play with each other. However, I really like observing the interactions between a physician and their patients—the patient describes his/her symptoms, the doctor diagnoses and treats, and the patient recovers (hopefully). It’s like each patient has their own unique story to tell, and the doctor’s are helping them come up with a conclusion.
In addition to the above, I observed a makeshift cleansing of an infected hematoma and a thrombectomy. I started on a clinical project, which I’ll describe later since this entry is already pretty long and very, very boring, and it needs to end before I fall asleep from writing, and you, from reading.
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