SurgeXperiences 107 Blog Carnival

Welcome to SurgeXperiences 107!

On the forefront: Robotic SurgeXperiences

• Aggravated Docsurg talks about what robotic surgery is all about.
  
  
• Once you've read that, another perspective can be found at surgeon's critique of robotic surgery.

Patient and Provider eXperiences

• Bongi tells the story of a surgery hopeful who had an unfortunate experience in the OR. I'd recommend if you read this one, you don't miss the postscript.
  
  
• While it may be minor as far as surgical experiences go, JD had a thyroid nodule biopsy performed recently, and explains the process from the patient's perspective.

Surgical eXperiences Abroad

• Kathryn provides a description of surgery in less than optimal conditions in a less than first-world country: "...The residents even tried to do surgery with sterile drapes wrapped around them because there aren’t any gowns at the moment..."
  
  
• Going to a different country to get surgery or other medical procedures done can be intimidating, but the Medical Tourism Guide provides a how-to guide for Researching a Doctor's Credentials - a must-read for anybody considering getting treatment abroad.

eXperiencing Surgery outside the OR

• If your friends ask you to play "a game of recreational surgery" with them, you may be interested in joining them since that's the name of a board game. I'd suggest you politely decline if any of your med student friends ask you the same thing, however.
  
  
• If you prefer a surgical game of the online variety, take a look at simulated Open Heart surgery.
  
  
• When I was a kid, I thought "plastic surgery" was akin to a game and had something to do with fixing people using doll parts. How fortuitious I corrected this bad impression by reading this excellent description of plastic surgery, lest I bring a Barbie to my first plastics elective in an attempted show of preparedness.

That's all there is to eXperience in this edition!

Special thanks to Jeff from SurgeXperiences for asking me to host this edition! Next week's can be found at Aggravated DocSurg on November 11.