So the hardest thing about still being a student (besides not knowing anything that is going on....ever) is that you have massive amounts to study once you get home after a 13 hour day running around the hospital. Most days I'm happy if I can get a hour in. But unfortunately this week is test week so that one hour a night just isn't gonna cut it.
So today my study partner and I hit up the library. There's a packet of vignettes that are super important and the word "escharotomy" came up. Neither one of us had any idea what it was so I looked it up:
Escharotomy is a procedure doctors perform on burn patients suffering from severe edema resulting from full-thickness, or third-degree burns. Doctors perform escharotomy when the severity of burns produces edema that limits circulation to the traumatized area. A physician uses a scalpel to make incisions along the skin that allows the tissue to expand and decreases pressure on the underlying structures. Due to the tension in the skin the swelling causes, the skin spreads far apart after the incision.
Whoa! thats intense!! Oh yeah and I forgot to mention:
Because sensory nerves are destroyed in a full thickness burn, no local anaesthetic is required.
Can you imagine? so basically, you come towards your patient waving a large scalpel saying "Trust me, this won't hurt. Trust me." And they're supposed to sit nice and still for you??
Picturing this kind of interaction makes studying fun =)
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