Published in Current surgery
A rare cause of occlusive vascular disease is the "Popliteal Artery Entrapment Syndrome." The most common cause of this problem is abnormal position of the popliteal artery caused by abnormal migration of the medial head of the gastrocnemius. An acquired form can occur because of tunneling defects by inadvertent placement of venous bypass graft med...
Published in Current surgery
Avastin (Bevacizumab) is a recently developed monoclonal antibody against vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) receptor that increases survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Bowel perforation is a known risk factor of unknown etiology associated with the use of Avastin. In this report, the incidence, risk factors, typical pres...
Published in Current surgery
Perforated Meckel's diverticulum (MD) is a rare complication of pregnancy. Its diagnosis, however, must be considered in all cases of intra-abdominal disease, as its presentation is similar to appendicitis. Prompt diagnosis and appropriate treatment is imperative in these cases due to the high rate of perforation leading to fetal and maternal morbi...
Published in Current surgery
A systematic process is described that produced a PGY1 curriculum for the surgical residents at Medical College of Wisconsin. The process involved faculty and residents. Topics were selected based on the six general competencies. Objectives were developed for all topics. The curriculum was delivered to the residents while they were off clinical dut...
Published in Current surgery
Cowden syndrome (CS) is a rare and complex disease inherited through an autosomal dominant trait associated with germline mutations of the PTEN gene. This article reports 2 female patients with classic features of the syndrome and reviews the current guidelines regarding diagnosis and surveillance. Although it exhibits variable clinical expressivit...
Published in Current surgery
Assessing the risk and predicting the outcome of surgery, trauma, and surgical intensive care is an important aspect of perioperative practice. There have been attempts to devise and validate many scoring systems to predict the prognosis of patients having a similar severity of illness. This article reviews some of the commonly used systems with re...
Published in Current surgery
Studies in on-call residents have shown that mood is worsened by fatigue as indicated by increased scores on measures of depression, anxiety, confusion, and anger using the Profile of Mood States (POMS). In prior sleep deprivation studies, mood has been shown to be more affected than either cognitive or motor performances. The purpose of this study...
Published in Current surgery
Despite concerns that the 80-hour workweek might threaten patient care and resident education, the morbidity and mortality rates at a busy level I trauma center remained unchanged. The quality of surgical resident education, as measured by operative volumes, ABSITE scores, and written and oral board examination pass rates were likewise unchanged. T...
Published in Current surgery
Solid pseudopapillary tumors (SPT) of the pancreas are rare neoplasms of low malignant potential that mostly affect young women. These tumors are of unclear pathogenesis, are slow growing, and can become considerably large before causing symptoms. Complete resection is curative in most cases. This is the case of a 39-year-old African-American woman...
Published in Current surgery
Core clerkship grading systems and the percentage to which institutions grade students as having achieved the highest performance level vary greatly among U.S. medical schools. Within institutions, significant variability exists among clerkships in the percentage of the highest grade given, which makes interpersonal comparison based on core clerksh...
