March 29, 2007
Sign of Spring
The office ladies breaking out their parasols to shield their pasty white skin from the sun's evil UV rays.
March 06, 2007
Anonymous Contribution
Always nice to see people who actually make a difference in the world make the news, like the Chronicle profile of the latest hotshot surgeon at UCSF.
Using the narrow space between ribs, Kukreja makes a small horizontal incision, wiggles her index and middle fingers in there to form a scissors and runs a deflated lung between them until she feels a hard mass. Then the mass is pulled out through that same 2-inch hole the way an ice fisherman pulls out a northern pike.
I'm sure the actual procedure isn't as easy as that sounds. Of more personal interest, she did have plenty of high-quality help.
Since no rib spreaders are used, it took a resident-in-training to hold the patient on the table while Kukreja tugged and shimmied the bag holding the tumor out of the chest.
Unfortunately, the extras don't get named, but it's good to see Sam moving up in the world. Although I would've thought they'd find a beefier resident to be the Patient-Holder-Downer. On the other hand, the schtick is that you need a surgeon with small hands to reach in between the patient's ribs, so the procedure may be right up his alley.