PULP FICTION? The clementine on the left was peeled, dissected to remove the pith and separate the segments, then neatly stitched back together by a laparoscopic surgeon. The sorry mess on the right was the artistry of a medical student. The trick was to do the entire “surgery” inside a closed opaque box fitted with cameras, scissors and surgical tools. Orange you glad they get to practice first?
• Pamela Andreatta is an educator, not a surgeon, at U Michigan. She noticed that residents and interns struggled at laparoscopic surgery, to the detriment of the patient. So she came up with a low cost training alternative. Surgeons say that the exercise is a remarkable simulation of the pelvic anatomy.
• The fruit of their labor can now be transplanted in any country (it is being field tested in Ghana). Students who cannot concentrate will be canned.
Source: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/06/27/155838967/what-clementines-can-teach-surgeons
madame scientist's not-so-mad musings 
The facts are great. The puns are AMAZING!
Haha, that is awesome, yes I’m very very very glad they practice first. My baby brother is a neuro surgeon, I sure as hell didn’t think he’d be doing that growing up 🙂
You have me in stitches.
The trick with orange surgery is to concentrate.
these puns have me in stitches 🙂
Haha. They could use a melon but they would have to tie it down so it Can’t Elope.
XD
The grape was a great sport too. No complaints, only a little whine.
So glad there is lots of practice…..
Schroedinger’s Orange. You really changed it, without looking at it.
The student’s work is the pits.
Your grape comment brings this to mind: da Vinci Surgical System: Surgery on a grape
The student is really the apple of the surgeon’s eye. He just needs to work be cider.
A fruitful relationship, Rajini Rao ?
Wow, Kevin Clift that was a grape demonstration of cutting edge technology. It really a peeled to me.
Erika Kerekes , both my children were born in teaching hospitals via Caesarian section. It was a zoo, with 20-30 interns/residents/student nurses etc. in the room, including students I had taught in their first year. Acutely embarrassing is a mild way of putting it 🙂
I remember that it isn’t a good time to be in hospital when a new batch arrives.
Kevin Clift , I’m patiently resigned about teaching hospitals. Perhaps because that’s all I’ve ever known. I’ve been associated with a medical school/hospital for nearly 30 years, so I take the good with the bad. Sometimes I get free samples of medication 🙂
The student’s one is disoranged.
But, Nobilangelo Ceramalus , the kiwi to perfection is practice.
Rajini Rao I think places like (which is what I know a teeneeny bit from) Karolinska in Sweden do a great job, in teaching, research and forwarding science. I suspect you’ll find things you want to improve pretty much anywhere.
Karonlinska is top notch, Johan Edstrom , I agree. Patrick Armstrong , so this is not a new idea?!
In your article’s comment I saw this predating the vietnam wars. Even if it isn’t new, keeps cost down and is effective I think it is highly applaudable.
Rajini Rao – Yes, attending a few dinners there with the stem cell research people I felt utterly clueless 🙂 And usually people think I’m confusing.
Well, the stem cell field is so rapidly evolving that we all feel clueless 🙂
Thanks for pointing me to the comments section. I found this hilarious comment that rings so true: “I roomed with medical students back in the 70s while I was working on my PhD. One day, after saving my pennies for a month, I splurged and bought a beautiful filet mignon. I put it in the fridge and when off to school for the day. When I got home that evening, I anticipated grilling my expensive steak on the back deck. But when I grabbed it from the icebox and opened the butcher paper, I discovered the steak was riddled with sutures. Dozens. All over. It looked like Frankensteak. I couldn’t believe it. My roommates explained that they were just finishing up a surgery rotation and needed to practice their suturing technique. They were told by their professor that the best medium was a raw steak. When I protested, I was assured that all would be fine since they deliberately used dissolving stitches…”
That is awesome! All I mostly remember from his early school years when he lived with me was that my fridge was
empty, 🙂
That empty fridge btw is an interesting thing I think more American families should do, my dad pretty much said since I wasn’t going to go for a Phd or further studies, I was making money, he’d paid for most of it, I’d have to pay board for my brother. 🙂
Very apropos musical offering, Mahesh Sreekandath 🙂 However, my son claims this is Black Sabbath. Is it?
Ah, a cover, okay. So free brain
saladsurgery by your brother if you should need it? 🙂He only knows useless facts Mahesh Sreekandath . At least he paused his video game long enough to talk to me 🙂
Hahah pretty much, well I guess the idea is that you invest in your family, and he is finally getting married to his gal of longtime so we should have a fun vacation in Sweden.
:)) Feisal Kamil LOL ahhh.
Is that title song by ELP in their album of the same name? I don’t recognize it, odd.
Feisal Kamil , what if the students ran out of juice part way through?
Haha, found a bad one: What did the chick say when it’s mother laid an orange? Look what marmalade.
Those med students deal with a lot of pear pressure.
The students practice making their bacon with the Da Vinci system at the University of Chicago using pigs.
And it doesn’t cost a sow.
No real oinkers.
That might be foul Feisal Kamil .
I don’t think Guinea pigs would a peel to them.
Are you grousing Feisal Kamil ?
Awesome song! Gnotic Pasta . It’s making me feel cherry good.
I have to duck out now, time flies.
Well, eventually we’ll be plum out of puns.
Time flies like a banana, Kevin Clift .
Two peanuts were walking in a tough neighborhood and one of them was a-salted.
Rajini Rao you mean when it’s time to split?
Gnotic Pasta , we could always listen to John Lemon, Paul MacIntosh, George Pearson or Ringo Starfruit.
Ouch, that hertz the MRI guy.
Cheryl Ann MacDonald, Psy’D. , LOL.
Had to get in on this one a little bit 🙂
This conversation could make a Man go crazy.
In medical school during the surgery rotation they give you expired sutures to practice your stitching. I rotated during surgery around Thanksgiving. I used the extra sutures to make a French recipe which I found in a the Julia Child’s “Mastering the Art of French Cooking,” where the bird is deboned and then sewn back together.
It was a lot of fun and turned out better than that orange.
LOL Feisal Kamil
J Stasko , you’re lucky they didn’t turn you in for a strobbery.
All the fruits are leaving, even the bananas split.
Did I squash that saying, Feisal Kamil ?
Honeydew you really think we are all out of puns?
At least they can publish the fruits of their experiments in the Journal of Appled Science.
Thank you for that peach de resistance, Jeff Godun .
A fat orange will indeed develop heart pulpitations.
So sad, Cheryl Ann MacDonald, Psy’D. . That made me açai.
:))) Rajini Rao
Wow, Gnotic Pasta !
I Prometheus no more puns after that Minerval masterpiece.
Feisal Kamil I bought some navel/blood orange hybrids at the Santa Monica farmers’ market yesterday and absolutely love them. They have the juiciness and sweetness of the navel with a hint of the tanginess and color of the blood orange. Perfect for eating as is. They are called…. Blavels
Gnotic Pasta , I must applaud your grand dill o’ quince.
Sorry to hear that your blackberry is not working, Dan.
My Blackberry Is Not Working! – The One Ronnie, Preview – BBC One
So much pun…but I gotta go 🙂
Oh my word the puns and poetry now! Gnotic Pasta
I see one pun gent is back.
Hehe! Great post Rajini Rao ! 🙂
Good morning!
Groan
The student has a long way to go…he should practise sewing on cloth first I think…
So I stitched her little sister
And forgot my Clementine….
(oh, my darling, oh, my darling, oh, my daaarling….)
I read that as “Students who cannot concentrate will be CANED”. Must be a critical procedure! =D
Nothing so severe as being beaten to a pulp, Rahul Joshi 🙂
Once you pop, the pun don’t stop! Rajini Rao
I love the this as a teaching solution. Simple, cheap and one of your five-a-day.
I am going to be raisin hell…
Kiwit it out already! This stuff is too lime. ><
PS: That’s it, now I am never getting treated by an intern again! I already have a scar on my left arm from the time I broke it… When cutting off the plaster they accidentally cut into it. Seeing this poor orange, kinda makes me think I got off lucky. :p
Koen De Paus , your experience made me quince! At some point one must draw a lime in the sand and say, Bah Na Na to those hackberry interns.
Like your work in my mail.
great
Putting together my ScienceSunday post before leaving, Feisal Kamil 🙂
Rajini, I’d like to Thank You for all of the post you’ve made on my page they are really great to learn about and to see the pictures is really a gift from you to enlighten us all, I share this page with my family so it means a great deal to me because I’ve got a lot of Students that are having to learn about what your sharing with them, You are a Great Lady, I hope to meet you one day and maybe we can spend a day at a Museum discussing everything we wish too, I’m sure it will be a good time for us both, Thank You again for sharing your Knowledge, Michael K.
Thank you for the kind words, Michael K. Freeman . I’m so glad that you enjoy these posts. Cheers!
AHH! I’ve had over 20 surgeries since July 1973, and seeing that Medical Students attempt at laporscopic surgery is very scary to me seeing as I was on the receiving end too many times to see their mistakes is worst than seeing the bill they are asking for the service provided.
Rajini it was my pleasure but after seeing this today you may have to make me less afraid of the unknown
We all have to start somewhere! But it’s no fun being a guinea pig, that’s for sure. Hope you are on the repair now, Michael K. Freeman .