This photo is from a guy who ended up having a penetrating corneal injury from a thorn. Apparently he was running through the woods in the dark, and came across a brier patch. Lesson learned…

A few issues to note when repairing corneal lacerations with foreign bodies:

• Make note of the direction of entrance. In some instances, it is easier to remove the foreign body from the direct it enters the globe.
• Composition of foreign body. If plant matter is involved, think of Bacillus cereus. You’d want to cover this organism with the appropriate antibiotics.
• Do not inject gentamicin intracamerally. You will kill the retina if anything greater than 100-ug goes intraocular.
• Make note of the tension of the sutures passed. At times it is tempting to tighten the knots as much as possible, but that is often unnecessary. You just want a water-tight seal without inducing too much astigmatism.

medicine ophthalmology

To think we’ve been using this A-scanner for our axial length measurements for cataract surgery. Circa 1970′s-style. We did get a new one recently…it’s white instead of yellow.

medicine ophthalmology

New entries will be back soon! Stay tuned!

misc

I’ve always suspected that physicians have a narrower breadth of knowledge than the average professional, especially in non-medical issues. After all, college and medical school for them consisted of learning organic chemical processes and bizarre diseases.

My suspicion was confirmed recently during a friend’s wedding. A portion of the wedding lunch was dedicated to “wedding trivia”. It wasn’t the typical trivia about the bride and groom one would know from being their acquaintances, but rather hardcore minutiae a la trivial pursuit.

Topics included politics:

What is the term used to describe unintended civilian consequences resulting from covert operations from an aggressor government?

And science:

What is the name used to describe the first primitive bird considered to be descended from dinosaurs?

The teams were divided by dinner tables. My table consisted of internists, nephrologists, and other physicians. We placed near the bottom of the competitor list, behind the lawyer table (trivia nights at the pub must have given them an advantage) and all of the tables with PhD’s.

Conclusion: We spend too much time studying diseases that have no cures.

Note: The answers to the aforementioned questions are “blowback” and “Archeopteryx”, respectively.

medicine humor, medicine

I noticed this logo on one of my boxes of table salt. I guess I should use salt the next time I want to shoo away a pigeon.

misc humor