All Scrubbed Up

Congratulations EmergencyEmm! Human Papilloma Virus is not rare. This guy had an immune deficiency which allowed a fairly common infection (warts) to get out of hand. An extract from the original article: After testing samples of the lesions and Dede's blood, Dr Anthony Gaspari of the University of Maryland concluded that his affliction is caused by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a fairly common infection that usually causes small warts to develop on sufferers. Dede's problem is that he has a rare genetic fault that impedes his immune system, meaning his body is unable to contain the warts. The virus was therefore able to "hijack the cellular machinery of his skin cells", ordering them to produce massive amounts of the substance that caused the tree-like growths known as "cutaneous horns" on his hands and feet. Dede's counts of a key type of white blood cell are so low that Dr Gaspari initially suspected he may have the Aids virus. But tests showed he ...

This one really got to me. I don't know what it is about us mere non-doctor mortals. SA Doc giggled and said "fascinating". I almost threw up. Anyhoo. Welcome to the WHAT IS THAT COMPETITION PART #3! Guess the medical thingy in the picture and you could win an AMAZING guest post on All Scrubbed Up valued at millions of emotional dollars! So... Here we go. What is THAT?! HINT: "I've never seen anything like this in my entire career." - Dr. Gaspari

Second post (in an initial public offering - har har - of 3) by our man with the plan - BONGI ! Enjoy... I didn't. This one was particularly gross for us "mere mortals". Read more of Bongi's stuff here . - - - - - A story that i thought quite funny at the time, illustrating us macho surgeons... sigmoid volvulus . a wonderful condition which is very common in africa. not the type the textbooks talk about found in institutionalised old folk, but the type found in young black adult males. prevalence highest in uganda, decreasing as one moves south, but still pretty common in south africa. so in my registrarship, i became quite good at detorting the volvulus which is the emergency treatment in casualties. if this doesn't work or on sigmoidoscopy (siggy as we called it) if you see any questionable bowel, immediate laparotomy is performed. anyway the patient came in and had a clear sigmoid volvulus on examination and x-rays. i got the siggy ready to detort and place a ...

Ladies and Germs ... Please give a hearty, clinically clean, surgically scrubbed welcome to our first guest poster - Bongi from Other Things Amanzi ! Welcome my man... This is part of a drive to get more contributions to All Scrubbed Up. We're about a year old now and readership is growing rapidly. More content for you, our medically minded audience. This is part 1 of a 3 post series. If you like Bongi's work - TELL US! It's a fascinating insight into Mpumalanga medicine (and this time, what they wear!) - - - - - Fashion Statements sometimes we as surgeons are restricted by the most mundane of things. back in my kalafong days, more often than my first world visitors could imagine, entire theater lists would get canceled because of lack of theater attire (scrubs). this gave rise to a funny story and, indirectly to a more recent and somewhat more serious story. story one. i arrived in theater one morning in kalafong, ready and eager to operate. there were no theater pants, on...

SA DOC: Easy one? Last time I saw one of these I was a student... They're nice and rare... but GREAT to look at! (Yech! - Andy) It's a teratoma! Great definition from Wikipedia.. A teratoma is a type of neoplasm (specifically, a tumor ). The word teratoma comes from Greek and means roughly "monstrous tumor". Definitive diagnosis of a teratoma is based on its histology : a teratoma is a tumor with tissue or organ components resembling normal derivatives of all three germ layers . Rarely, not all three germ layers are identifiable. The tissues of a teratoma, although normal in themselves, may be quite different from surrounding tissues, and may be highly inappropriate, even grotesque (hence the monstrous): teratomas have been reported to contain hair , teeth , bone and very rarely more complex organs such as eyeball , torso , and hand . Usually, however, a teratoma will contain no organs but rather one or more tissues normally found in organs such as the brain, thyr...

Right. Next one! THE CASE: 24 year old female presents with a lump in her right groin. Pain. HINT: This "thing" can also occur in males. Pretty, ain't it?

Spotted on Digg recently... A young father who drank up to 15 bottles of wine a day died of cirrhosis so bad his liver had split in half, his family revealed yesterday. Steven Massey, described as a 'Jack the lad', would drink his favourite Cassini sparkling perry 'just like he was drinking pop'. The 21-year-old's death has devastated his parents and four older siblings, who hope his story will send out a shocking message about the perils of boozing. I CANNOT believe that a 21-year-old could drink themselves to death!? Where the hell were the parents? Don't you think it's disgusting that you get first world countries where people are dying from social diseases. Then I read a little further on, and this kiddie, Steven Massey, already has THREE CHILDREN! I ask again, where were the parents with the sex education (or at least a fuckin condom!). Bloody hell. Split in half is fairly melo-dramatic. I guess it was so fragile, it just kinda fell apart. Lovely. SA D...

Ladies and Germs. I'm proud to announce the winner of the first World Famous "What is THAT?" Competition - ... BONGI ! Nice one gal! SA DOC says: It's a multifibroid uterus. And yip, the story is true (some details have been changed to protect the patient). I'm not so sure why SA Surgeon (his alias) was so keen to take it out - usually gynae territory apparently. Next competition coming soon! (PS. Bongi - if you want your picture on the blog - drop your email in the a comment. AND... as a BONUS PRIZE - you get to write a guest post on SA's biggest medical blog. Keen? Drop us a line!)

So here's an idea for the medics and non-medics amoung you. Welcome to the first installation of the All Scrubbed Up "What is THAT" Competition. From time to time, we'll post something up that I've either removed during a surgery - or that we've happened on across the medical web. Your job? Tell us what it is! WARNING: The following images may not be suitable for children under the age of 16 - and squirmish males. CLUE: 42 year old woman presents with growing mass in her abdomen for three years. What is THAT? (Please post your answers as comments - winner gets... uh... their picture on the blog!) Update : ANSWER HERE !