Category: surgery

The inspiring story of a female orthopaedic surgeon

As a female orthopaedic surgeon, I am often asked how I ended up in this field. Although seeing women in orthopaedic surgery is becoming more common, we are still makeup only 6 percent of the orthopaedic surgeons in the U.S. I actually had no idea what…

Shorten recovery with prehabilitation before surgery

Would you take an exam without studying? Would you run a marathon without training? If not, why would you show up for surgery without physical preparation for a life-changing event? Few patients capitalize on the opportunity to improve the odds of a su…

The power of an individual’s story reminds physicians why they got into medicine

As a surgeon who specializes in gynecologic cancer, I have performed thousands of operations over my two-decade career. But the ones my team and I have done since the beginning of this year have been the most fulfilling. The reason? A simple yet remark…

Protecting women from maternal mortality

A guest column by the American Society of Anesthesiologists, exclusive to KevinMD.com. I vividly remember the first time I saw someone who had died. She was in her late 20s, wearing tattered clothes, and alone. Her friends and family never came. I watc…

Our work goes beyond the hospital

There is a species of jellyfish that exists only in one lake on this entire planet.  Every morning, before the sun rises, these jellyfish travel to the surface of the lake so that algae that live within them can photosynthesize and produce glucose for …

Accomplishing both my childhood and medical school dreams

When I was five years old, I wanted to be Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. I admired her because I, too, had long, blonde hair and loved to play in the woods. During the movie, I sang with the music. “I know you. I walked with you once upon a dream. I know…

Was she a doctor? Or was she a hack?

Separating fact from fiction had once been her favorite activity. Going over research with a fine-toothed comb, she caught the inaccuracies that riddled popular culture like unruly strands of hair. It came down to this simple algorithm: there were thin…

Narcotics are not necessary for recovery after plastic surgery

When it comes to plastic surgery, I have found that many people — doctors included — expect post-surgical pain, so they plan for that assumption. This means preparing for days, weeks, or months of narcotics use. This mode of thinking begins…

Do physicians have a right to be forgotten?

When we all lived in villages, knowing individual merchants allowed you to identify and avoid the cheats. As we urbanized, brand names became the reputational marker. But when you are dealing on the internet, where no one “knows you’re a dog,” what gua…

A plastic surgeon explains the dangers of the Brazilian butt lift

The Brazilian butt lift (BBL) is a procedure that enhances the buttocks through fat transfer. Excess fat is harvested from other areas of the body including the abdomen, hips, lower back and thighs through liposuction. BBL is a popular procedure for th…