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Unusual cases part 5: Don’t put your feet on the dashboard
Right femur (red arrow). Left femur (yellow arrow). The Daily Mail reported a woman in Wales had her feet on the dashboard when the car she was riding in was involved in a motor vehicle crash. When the...
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Long-term follow-up of antibiotics for appendicitis: Shocking but expected...
After a median follow-up of 7 years, 39% of patients who underwent treatment of uncomplicated acute appendicitis with antibiotics eventually required appendectomy. This bombshell finding appears in a...
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Barbecue grill brush bristles found in odd places
With spring almost here, it’s time to start barbecuing again. It may be one of our few diversions if we are still staying home. Before you get out that wire brush to clean off last year’s grill mess,...
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Mortality rate of COVID-19 patients on ventilators
Written by Physician’s Weekly Blogger, Skeptical Scalpel Although at the time I wrote this over 33,000 people had died from COVID 19 infections worldwide, the numbers of patients dying in intensive...
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CPR in COVID-19 patients has a low survival rate
The overall 30-day survival rate for COVID-19 patients receiving CPR was 4 (2.9%) patients, but only 1 (0.7%) had a favorable neurologic outcome at 30 days and just 18 (13.2%) patients achieved return...
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Update: Mortality rate of COVID-19 patients on ventilators
Data released on May 8 by the UK’s Intensive Care National Audit & Research Centre (ICNARC) shows the mortality rate for 4287 COVID 19 patients who received advanced respiratory support was 58.8%....
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The Skeptical Scalpel Awards
Written by Physician’s Weekly blogger, Skeptical Scalpel Now for something completely different. Here is the first edition of the Skeptical Scalpel Awards. Coronavirus Research Awards (3-Way Tie for...
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Worst Ever COVID-19 Screening Idea for Airports
Written by Physician’s Weekly blogger, Skeptical Scalpel In a June 3rd Washington Post article about recent changes in airport screening practices, risk management expert Bruce McIndoe discussed...
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Unusual cases Part 6: Surviving Bizarre Perforations
by Skeptical Scalpel, Physician’s Weekly Top Blogger One patient, two complications Fig 1. Hole in gallbladder wall A patient who was to undergo a robot-assisted right nephrectomy because of recurrent...
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Acute appendicitis: Will a novel endoscopic “organ-sparing” approach change...
by Skeptical Scalpel, Physician’s Weekly Top Blogger Will a novel endoscopic “organ-sparing” approach change the treatment paradigm? I say a resounding “NO.” An opinion piece with the above title in...
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Covid Times Get Stranger and Stranger
After learning that several players on the Miami Marlins baseball team had tested positive for the Covid-19 virus, the team went ahead with a scheduled game on Sunday, July 26. How did they make the...
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How to get around a state’s cap on pain and suffering
Written by Physician’s Weekly blogger, Skeptical Scalpel Since 1975, California has had a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering in medical malpractice cases. A recent case illustrates how a plaintiff’s...
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Non-Physician Hospital CEO Cut after Participating in Surgery
Last week on Twitter I asked this question: The 130 (2.5%) of 5,213 respondents who said they would allow a CEO to make a skin incision highlight the unscientific nature of Twitter polls. Restricting...
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Unusual Cases Part 7: Growing Hair…and a Guidewire
Written by Physician’s Weekly blogger, Skeptical Scalpel I Can’t Stomach This One Figure 1. Contrast in the stomach, showing an inguinal/scrotal hernia An elderly man with a long history of a left...
View ArticleComparison of Outcomes of Antibiotic Drugs and Appendectomy (CODA) Trial:...
The short-term results of the CODA trial have just been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. This study of over 1500 patients randomized to either appendectomy or antibiotics and found...
View ArticleSerial Con Artist OB/GYN awaits trial
Written by Physician’s Weekly blogger, Skeptical Scalpel Board-certified obstetrician/gynecologist Javaid Perwaiz is facing over 60 federal charges including 33 counts of making false statements...
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Half of med school graduates beginning surgical residency feel unprepared
Written by Physician’s Weekly blogger, Skeptical Scalpel A survey of 3693 first and second-year surgical residents found that 1775 (48.1%) said medical school did not adequately prepare them for the...
View ArticleQuestion: What do math and medicine have in common?
Answer: The way they are taught is out of date. By Physician’s Weekly blogger, Skeptical Scalpel A guy named Steven Levitt is tired of helping his teenagers with their quadratic equations and imaginary...
View ArticleDangerous pitfalls of database research
By Physician’s Weekly blogger, Skeptical Scalpel Two papers using the same data about the same topic were published in the same surgical journal one month apart. They came up with completely opposite...
View ArticleWhat can Be Done about Doctors Who Spread Misinformation?
Especially in a pandemic. By Physician’s Weekly blogger, Skeptical Scalpel The Oregon Medical Board suspended the license of family practitioner Steven Latulippe for what it called “unprofessional or...
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