"God, it’s great to be a general surgeon"

When a surgeon talks about “the case of a career,” one takes notice.

A fascinating recount of severe mesenteric ischemia. So much so that the supposedly infallible organ, the stomach, falls prey:

The stomach is the supposedly invincible organ of the GI tract, like the queen in chess. It’s supposed to be impossible to devascularize the stomach because it gets it’s blood supply from so many different sources. The left gastric artery comes right off the celiac trunk. The right gastric artery is a branch of the hepatic artery. The gastroepiploic artery is fed by branches from the SMA and the celiac. The short gastric arteries siphon blood from the splenic artery. It’s hard to necrose the stomach even if you’re feeling especially reckless and/or malicious.

Great reading, and congratulations on saving another life.

topics: surgeon, surgery