Wednesday, April 16

plastics: wk 1, day 3

today's case was even wilder than yesterday's.

the patient was a little kid, who grew up with large defects in her skull. there were large patches of only membrane (dura) covering her brain. (lemme tell you, i saw pictures of this kid, and she is SO cute.)

the plan (absolutely crazy. so bOLD. who thought of this crazy op, anyway?):
1) open kid's scalp, free most of it (this looks SO WEIRD. weirder than yesterday's), expose the defects.
2) take out a couple of the kid's ribs, split them, shape them
3) drill holes in skull, holes in split ribs
4) approximate (bring edge of split rib next to skull), then pass thin metal wire through holes
5) twist metal wire, causing tension, and bringing the edges together in a stable manner.
6) close scalp

the awesome thing is, the split ribs have active cells that will be crucial in causing healing and bone formation so that this kid will have maximum coverage of the deficits in her head. brilliant.



yakob at 5:05 PM

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