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Eye surgery (Eye (ophthalmic,ophthalmological,department
of ophthalmology,specialty of
ophthalmology) orthopedic (orthopaedic,department
of orthopedics) surgery (surgical,operating,Operation)
microscope)is breathtaking.
While on my week-long Ophthalmology
rotation, I’ve been lucky enough to
observe quite a few eye surgeries(Eye
orthopedic surgery microscope).
During cataract Operation, the ones
I’ve been seeing the most of, the
ophthalmologist removes the
patient’s old, clouded lens from
their eye and inserts a new
artificial lens in its place.
Because the eye is such a small body
part and the incisions you have to
make to operate are even smaller,
the entire Operation(Eye
orthopedic surgery microscope)
is done under a microscope
(ophthalmic operating microscope)
with two eyepieces – one for the
surgeon and one for the assistant.
The thing that surprised me most
about cataract Operation(Eye (ophthalmic,ophthalmological,department
of ophthalmology,specialty of
ophthalmology) orthopedic (orthopaedic,department
of orthopedics) surgery (surgical,operating,Operation)
microscope), however, is that the
patient is awake for it! The
patient’s entire body (except their
eye,Eye (ophthalmic,ophthalmological,department
of ophthalmology,specialty of
ophthalmology) orthopedic (orthopaedic,department
of orthopedics) surgery (surgical,operating,Operation)
microscope) is covered with a
sterile drape, but they are
completely alert and talking with
the surgeon the entire time. Their
lids are pried open with metal
hooks, and the surgeon is cutting
into their eyeball with several
sharp instruments, yet the only
anesthesia used is a mild sedative
and something to numb the
eye(ophthalmic operating
microscope). Crazy.
If you know how much I love being in
the operating room, you can imagine
how excited I was when the
ophthalmologist I was working with
yesterday asked me to scrub in and
assist him with his cataract
Operation(Eye
orthopedic surgery microscope).
My role was to squirt some water on
the eyeball periodically to make
sure it didn’t dry out – it sounds
less exciting than it was, trust me.
Toward the end of the surgery(Eye (ophthalmic,ophthalmological,department
of ophthalmology,specialty of
ophthalmology) orthopedic (orthopaedic,department
of orthopedics) surgery (surgical,operating,Operation)
microscope), the ophthalmologist was
stitching a layer of the eyeball
closed with the smallest sutures I
had ever seen in my life – they were
only 0.02 millimeters thick, a
fraction of the width of a hair. He
asked me to cut his tiny stitch with
a pair of tiny scissors, and I was
ecstatic.
When I first went to cut the the
thread, it slipped in between the
two blades of my scissors, not
cutting it at all. “Oops,” I said
quietly, and tried again,
successfully snipping the
microscopic(Eye
orthopedic surgery microscope)
suture with the microscopic
scissors(Eye
orthopedic surgery microscope).
I then realized the grave mistake I
had made a few seconds earlier: the
patient was fully awake, and I just
said OOPS during their Operation(Eye
orthopedic surgery microscope).
I was expecting to get yelled at,
but the ophthalmologist (Eye (ophthalmic,ophthalmological,department
of ophthalmology,specialty of
ophthalmology) orthopedic (orthopaedic,department
of orthopedics) surgery (surgical,operating,Operation)
microscope)kindly and
matter-of-factly informed me that
there are three phrases that are
absolutely not allowed during
cataract surgery: Oops, Darn, and Oh
My God. I nodded and gave the tiny
scissors back to the nurse, and went
back to squirting the eye with
water.
http://blog.timesunion.com/mdtobe/what-not-to-say-during-eye-surgery/1689/ |
