Vascular Surgery

I've finished my colo-rectal surgery attachement now. Aside from smelling rather bad, it was by and large a fun experience. I suppose the only negative point was headbutting the consultant by accident in the operating theatre as we both bent down to look into the abdomen. I think he came off worse though, but the patient was fine so all was well!

I've now swapped over onto vascular surgery, which is in a word, minging. The big problem people with vascular problems seem to suffer is their limbs not getting a good enough blood supply, and so they go black and necrotic and horrible. They look horrific and smell even worse! And so, how does one treat a necrotic foot? Well, rather obviously you fill it with maggots! Yes, the doctors on the wards put a bunch of maggots (in what looks like a tea bag) into the wounds of some patients! The logic is, the maggots will eat all the dead material leaving the wound clean and happy. To me, it sounds quite a distressing experience - but it does actually seem to work. If maggots don't float your boat, other proven options include dressings made of honey or silver. Odd!