Categories
Medicine Surgery

I’m sure glad that wasn’t my complication

Via Kevin, MD, a picture of a complication I hope I never have: A description of the complication: A 40-year-old man with Crohn’s disease underwent an uncomplicated operation involving lysis of adhesions that were causing intestinal obstruction. After surgery, a cardiologist inserted a central venous catheter through the left subclavian vein. No problems with catheterization […]

Categories
Medicine Religion Surgery

A most uncomfortable question

While I am on vacation, I’m reprinting a number of “Classic Insolence” posts to keep the blog active while I’m gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I’m guessing that quite a few of my […]

Categories
Humor Medicine Science Surgery

A field guide to biomedical meeting creatures, part 1: Any questions?

While I am on vacation, I’m reprinting a number of “Classic Insolence” posts to keep the blog active while I’m gone. (It also has the salutory effect of allowing me to move some of my favorite posts from the old blog over to the new blog, and I’m guessing that quite a few of my […]

Categories
Friday Woo Medicine Quackery Skepticism/critical thinking Surgery

What a wonderful gift for Christmas

This one’s too good for me to ignore even on vacation. It’s the perfect gift for the skeptical. Remember the Friday Dose of Woo in which I had a little fun with the whole concept of trepanning (drilling a hole in your head to “improve blood flow”)? Well guess what? The trepanation guy (Randall W. […]

Categories
Cancer Clinical trials Medicine Surgery

On the messiness of evidence-based medicine

I’m about a week late on this one. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of my readers were wondering why I hadn’t weighed in on this story when it broke late last week. (Either that, or no one was wondering, and I’m just displaying some of my surgeon’s ego for all to see.) […]