grand rounds

grand rounds vol 4 number 15, welcome to south africa. and a happy new year to all!!




rlbates is suturing for a living. she gives an informative overview on post hematoma in plastic surgery. how to decrease the chances.













jolie bookspan challenges us to extend the spirit of christmas in more than one way.








rita schwab talks about her experience starting up a new business involved in tracking and responding to patient comments, complaints and grievances in the healthcare setting. sounds like a worthwhile endeavour. "this is great, rita, but what about...?"










henry stern tackles a tough issue. it puts focus on the cost involved in healthcare and who should pay when the procedure may not make a difference to the prognosis. it reminded me that bad things happen to good people and sometimes it is no one's fault.










one of my favourite bloggers (and 'radio' hosts), doctor anonymous, discusses medical myths even doctors believe. but is it doctors that say they believe these myths or is it a myth that doctors believe them? take a look.















coming from a country as i do where the rate of intervention in childbirth is, in my opinion, ridiculously high, i really enjoyed myra's post about home birth. it is good to be reminded that pregnancy and childbirth are not illnesses. keep it up, myra.




















shauna puts a personal face on the effects of ms. this is a very brave blog and definitely worth a look.
















ernursey has a great post about a patient that gave the er staff their daily dose of adrenaline. i love these personal accounts. i must admit, it reminded me how little i enjoyed cardiac patients. each to his own, though. well done.












paul auerbach has an interesting post about wearing a helmet while skiing. i know i'm probably the last one to give an opinion about skiing, but wearing a helmet does strike me as a good idea. take a look what he says.














barbara kivowitz questions how equal we are in health care. or are some truly more equal than others?


















dr emer gives some good suggestions for new year's resolutions. will we be able to pull it off this year?
















a psychiatrist discusses an itch and how to scratch it. who would have thunk there is so much more than just getting that special person to scratch it.














eric turkewitz brings the legal perspective to the fore. it's good to know politicians mess things up everywhere and not just in africa. i'm also glad that medical litigation is not as prevalent where i come from.













gerald pugliese and doctor fuhrman discuss whether cooking vegetables really makes such a difference. being very allergic, as i am, to the multitude of dogmatic fads that intermittently turn up, i really enjoyed a scientific look at this.











david e williams has a somewhat scary look at the chance that google can diagnose you of some illness before your doctor. maybe big brother is really watching us???















alvaro discusses how we got expensive brains and what it means today. very interesting stuff.
















vitum medicinus writes a post reminding himself what an honour he has to be in the profession he is in. i'm glad to see that his emphasis is in the right place.














terry talks about epidurals in labour. it seems that you need to get them in to transform the patient into a relaxed, cooperative being before another transformation takes place. imagine if dr jeckyl had known this stuff.














jenni prokopy takes us through a post dealing with the social aspects of living with a chronic condition. i liked this article because it reminded me that the task of going about our business of being human is actually what it is all about. us medical types sometimes forget this.













clinical cases shows us that av blocks can be cool. well if not cool, then at least funny. take a look and a laugh.






















in allergy notes we learn that carbon dioxide can help with allergic rhinitis. i can't help wondering what al gore would say about that.
















susan palwick takes us through a night of trauma and its effects on the family and the chaplain.
i love these personal blogs. i often get asked how i do what i do, but i really wonder how susan does what she does. not for me thank you.














kenneth f. trofatter takes a look at low hormone levels in early pregnancy. very informative without losing the human touch. well done.














toni brayer has a wonderful post about resolutions for patients and doctors. good luck with that.














dr val helps us understand the jumble of conflicting studies, or more specifically why there are conflicting studies in the first place.













finally, i thought it was tough in south african hospitals and i'm sure many bloggers feel that they have it quite hard in their american hospitals. but we can all be glad we are not down under! all i can say is that it is obviously universal...white men can't dance.









and that's it from africa. please feel free to drop by here any time for surgical and uniquely south african stories.












next week's grand rounds will be hosted at pathtalk.