« What Are You Looking At? | Main | How to Lose a Sale in 24 Seconds »
October 13, 2004
Pump it in, Pump it out
Once again, its The Shelanman here with a timely report. On Monday October 4th the L.A. Times Health section ran an article entitled "Heal the heart, hurt the mind?" about a possible side-effect of open-heart surgery that I thought was both bizarre and interesting. (source: L.A. Times. 10/4/2004. Foreman, Judy. (no link, subscription required))
Apparently some doctors have noticed that after a patient spends time on a heart-lung machine (used during bypass surgery, among others according to the article), they have a decrease in their "mental sharpness." Apparently in many cases, this condition wears off over a couple of days, but is sometimes permanent. The article does not cite any specific studies, but there is a widespread (unproven) opinion within the medical community that this effect does actually exist...
As the article points out, it is difficult to know how common this effect is. After all, IQ tests are not part of a pre-cardiac-surgery checkup, and for that matter, there is healthy debate as to the accuracy of those tests.
I seem to have forgotten the amusing angle of this otherwise-serious seeming story. This condition, which may or may not exist, and may or may not come from a heart-lung machine, has a name: pump-head. That's right, those doctors that usually come up with lovely scientific and completely unemotional names somehow decided to call this pump-head.
It is believed that pump-head occurs due to air-bubbles or blood clots that enter the brain and may become temporarily or permanently londged there while the patient is on the pump.
What's the moral of this story? Well, that's two-fold:
- Doctors should be encouraged to come up with such creative and humorous names for serious conditions more frequently
- Perhaps you should think twice before volunteering to have a second big pump attached to yourself.
-- The Shelanman
Purveyor of the bizarre-but-true
Posted by andrew at October 13, 2004 04:03 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.shelanman.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/10
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Pump it in, Pump it out:
» kelly blue book used car from kelly blue book used car
kelly blue book used car [Read More]
Tracked on January 27, 2006 12:26 AM
» massage therapist from massage therapist
massage therapist [Read More]
Tracked on January 27, 2006 03:17 AM
» massage tables from massage tables
massage tables [Read More]
Tracked on January 27, 2006 03:57 AM