Post by gkalv on May 1, 2008 1:40:26 GMT -5
i had a great experience on ct surgery at mcg but after talking to other students, there was a lot of variability depending on how busy the service was. i was in the OR 8/10 days but i know students that only saw 1-2 cases in the two weeks.
that being said... here is my experience.
you'll work with 3 attendings, londalfo who does mostly cardio (CABG, valves and now transplant), chang who did a lot of esophageal and pulmonary stuff during my 2 weeks and patel who did some pulmonary and cardio (CABG, transplants with londalfo). mcg has now done 2 heart transplants so that is just getting started up.
there are no residents assigned to this service. they get gen surg residents to help and there a 2 PA's - patrick and jennifer who are really nice and laid back. the last 3 days of my service there was no resident so just dr. patel and i did a thoracotomy on one guy and a VATS on somebody else which was really cool - made me feel like a surgery resident. he generally lets you do more stuff in the OR once he has some confidence in you. i got to make the initial incision and bovie down through the tissue, help with the decortication, put in the chest tubes and help close on the thoracotomy case we did - so there is potential to get to do a lot!
dr. patel is in charge of the student evaluations and he wants you in the OR as much as possible. he gives you permission to scrub on all cases. londalfo usually doen't let students scrub but i got to on a couple cases after the PA finished harvesting the saph vein.
dr. chang pips a lot. he asked me to read a CT in the OR and asked me about lung cancer staging before a wedge resection (for lung ca). so read up on the cases!
dr. londalfo - ask the PA's about what to do and not do BEFORE you go into the OR for a case with him. basically you might not get to scrub and make sure you stay away from the sterile table -always go around behind the anesthesia folks.
logistics: i got there 6-6:30 and got labs and vitals on the inpatients - max of about 5 while i was there, then off to the OR. a CABG can take 3-4 hours so be aware that some of these cases are long. i think 1-2 days we didn't have any cases so i saw a couple consults with the PA. you don't have to round on patients or write notes or see them but i did pick up one patient and saw her each am and wrote a note. you might get asked to come in and round on the patients on the saturday between the 2 weeks. i had a family thing going on so they let me off the hook and i don't think it was too detrimental to my grade. they do have clinic but i was in the OR those days. on days we had lecture i just checked in afterwards and was told to go home. i think i usually left by 5:30 or so.
also, there are 2 short papers to write on this rotation:
#1 - 3 pages, page 1 pt HPI, pg 2 disease they had (pathophys, etc), page 3, surgical treatment and how that patient did
#2 - 2-3 pages on pathophys of some disease.
both papers can be written in one night and dr. patel has a handout with all the details.
overall, this was a great rotation for me, one of the best of 3rd year but depending on the OR schedule you might end up with a lot of reading time. just ask lots of questions and make sure you're in a lot of OR cases - dr. patel will ask you to keep track of them so try not to miss any between the 3 attendings.
that being said... here is my experience.
you'll work with 3 attendings, londalfo who does mostly cardio (CABG, valves and now transplant), chang who did a lot of esophageal and pulmonary stuff during my 2 weeks and patel who did some pulmonary and cardio (CABG, transplants with londalfo). mcg has now done 2 heart transplants so that is just getting started up.
there are no residents assigned to this service. they get gen surg residents to help and there a 2 PA's - patrick and jennifer who are really nice and laid back. the last 3 days of my service there was no resident so just dr. patel and i did a thoracotomy on one guy and a VATS on somebody else which was really cool - made me feel like a surgery resident. he generally lets you do more stuff in the OR once he has some confidence in you. i got to make the initial incision and bovie down through the tissue, help with the decortication, put in the chest tubes and help close on the thoracotomy case we did - so there is potential to get to do a lot!
dr. patel is in charge of the student evaluations and he wants you in the OR as much as possible. he gives you permission to scrub on all cases. londalfo usually doen't let students scrub but i got to on a couple cases after the PA finished harvesting the saph vein.
dr. chang pips a lot. he asked me to read a CT in the OR and asked me about lung cancer staging before a wedge resection (for lung ca). so read up on the cases!
dr. londalfo - ask the PA's about what to do and not do BEFORE you go into the OR for a case with him. basically you might not get to scrub and make sure you stay away from the sterile table -always go around behind the anesthesia folks.
logistics: i got there 6-6:30 and got labs and vitals on the inpatients - max of about 5 while i was there, then off to the OR. a CABG can take 3-4 hours so be aware that some of these cases are long. i think 1-2 days we didn't have any cases so i saw a couple consults with the PA. you don't have to round on patients or write notes or see them but i did pick up one patient and saw her each am and wrote a note. you might get asked to come in and round on the patients on the saturday between the 2 weeks. i had a family thing going on so they let me off the hook and i don't think it was too detrimental to my grade. they do have clinic but i was in the OR those days. on days we had lecture i just checked in afterwards and was told to go home. i think i usually left by 5:30 or so.
also, there are 2 short papers to write on this rotation:
#1 - 3 pages, page 1 pt HPI, pg 2 disease they had (pathophys, etc), page 3, surgical treatment and how that patient did
#2 - 2-3 pages on pathophys of some disease.
both papers can be written in one night and dr. patel has a handout with all the details.
overall, this was a great rotation for me, one of the best of 3rd year but depending on the OR schedule you might end up with a lot of reading time. just ask lots of questions and make sure you're in a lot of OR cases - dr. patel will ask you to keep track of them so try not to miss any between the 3 attendings.
