Surgery

[yeliab_cram]

Whipple's procedure is proper hard-core surgery for cancer of the head of the pancreas. Because of the anatomical relations of the pancreas, you have to whip out a large chunk of duodenum & stomach as well as the common bile duct to get it all out.

To make things actually work again afterwards, you then re-plumb everything back together by sewing a loop of jejunum (ie the small bowel after the duodenum which you just chopped out) directly onto the remains of the common bile duct, then you attatch what remains of the stomach and pancreas to the rest of the jejunum.

Pretty barbaric stuff.

[alex MD]

yeh ive applied to newcastle, leeds, leicester and dundee! my UKCAT went a bit shite-got 550 av. so i guess i'll have to see how it goes!

[alex MD]

marc, do general surgeons or GI surgeons carry out Whipples? is GI essentially a branch of general surgery like vascular?

[Dr Noodle]

NG tubes for a good while after that?Must decrease their appetite a good bit if the stomach is shrunk. Ugh it sounds pretty nasty.

That UKCAT score ain't bad!Plus as far as I can recall you have an amazing amount of experience

[alex MD]

lol cheers! yeh i got plenty of experience in! i right want some more though lol i want to get into surgery again, it wa awesome!

[Dr Noodle]

Surgery is fascinating but I hate those bloody masks!

[alex MD]

lol! yeh i couldn't imagine wearing them for ages like during a whipple! but i felt smooth in the scrubs and hat haha

[Dr Noodle]

The bandanas are pretty cool I'd settle for that Thanks to the mask I fainted the first time I did work experience. The second time I was fine but I did have to keep readjusting the mask so I had air coming in the bottom. He he I love wearing scrubs, I've had to wear them a couple of times at work like the time when the coffee machine attacked me...

[Munarix]

Originally Posted by yeliab_cram

Whipple's procedure is proper hard-core surgery for cancer of the head of the pancreas. Because of the anatomical relations of the pancreas, you have to whip out a large chunk of duodenum & stomach as well as the common bile duct to get it all out.

To make things actually work again afterwards, you then re-plumb everything back together by sewing a loop of jejunum (ie the small bowel after the duodenum which you just chopped out) directly onto the remains of the common bile duct, then you attatch what remains of the stomach and pancreas to the rest of the jejunum.

Pretty barbaric stuff.

I got to watch from just behind the consultant for the full five hour procedure on my work experience, i must say it was pretty interesting stuff! At the end wasn't expecting them to pour water into him and let his organs float about before sucking it out, lol.

[Dr Noodle]

He he organs ahoy!