December 22nd, 2011 by GruntDoc in News
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Aah, the French:
The idea of putting maggots into open flesh may sound repulsive, but such a therapy might be a quick way to clean wounds, a new study from France suggests.
via Maggots Clean Wounds Faster Than Surgeons | Wound Healing | LiveScience.
I kid. I think this is a good idea, and it’s natures’ way of saying ‘cleanup on aisle three’. Patients not infrequently will be brought to the ED with awful, non-healing wounds infested with maggots.
We typically kill them off, more because a) the staff is completely grossed out and b) if you’re living at home and have maggots in your wounds, let’s just say your personal hygiene is deeply suspect. Rank, in fact. Needs a decon level bad.
However, there is a legitimate role for biological wound cleaning; I have a WWII surgical book with a chapter in it on growing your own sterile maggots. It’s not an ER thing, but it’s yet another tool in the armamentarium of bad wounds.
*This blog post was originally published at GruntDoc*
September 25th, 2011 by RamonaBatesMD in Health Tips, Opinion
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Don’t simply look for a surgeon who is board certified. Make sure they are trained to do the procedure you are having. Yes, board certification is important, but the training is more so (in my humble opinion).
If you are having a breast augmentation, you don’t want a board certified maxillofacial surgeon or Ob-Gyn or neurosurgeon. You want someone trained in plastic surgery. It is a bonus if they are board certified. By the same token, if you need brain surgery you don’t want a board certified plastic surgeon you want someone trained in neurosurgery.
This rant was prompted by Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Suture for a Living*
September 8th, 2011 by Edwin Leap, M.D. in Opinion
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I think a lot about the slow, certain dissolution of medicine as we know it. Mental health issues crowd emergency departments, as few mental health clinics are available. Psychiatrists are in short supply. Drug abuse overwhelms the medical system, with either patients seeking pills or patients families hoping to get them off of pills.
Persons with little interest in their own health continue to smoke and drink, use Meth and eat poorly. Disability claims are skyrocketing as younger and younger individuals confabulate their misery in hopes of attaining a check, paid for by someone else.
The poor, with genuine medical problems, have increasing difficulty finding care as jobs, and insurance, fade away. Politicians, eager to be re-elected, eager to be loved, promise Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at edwinleap.com*
August 30th, 2011 by RyanDuBosar in News, Research
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Although nearly 70% of medical specialties saw increases in compensation in 2010, increases were marginal, reports the American Medical Group Association’s 2011 Medical Group Compensation and Financial Survey.
Primary care specialties saw about a 2.6% increase in 2010, while other medical specialties averaged an increase of 2.4% and surgical specialties averaged around 3.8%. Specialties with the largest increases in compensation were allergy (6.38%), emergency medicine (6.37%), and hospitalist-internal medicine (6.29%).
In comparison, in 2009, primary care and surgical specialties saw about a Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at ACP Hospitalist*
August 28th, 2011 by Michael Kirsch, M.D. in Opinion, Research
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Medical malpractice reform is in the news again. Of course, for the medical profession, the medical malpractice system is the wound that simply will not heal. For the plaintiffs bar, in contrast, the medical liability system is the gift that keeps on giving. I have argued that the current system fails on four important fronts.
- Efficiency
- Cost
- Fairness
- Quality Improvement
I admit readily that my profession has not been as diligent as it should be in holding ourselves accountable. We have not been forthright in admitting our medical errors, although can you blame us under the current medical liability construct? Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at MD Whistleblower*
