So no need to have appendixes removed prior to being stationed in Antarctica anymore?
Wait is that a requirement?
After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
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Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#12Great news! Seems like I (not a doctor but probably the most medically-qualified person in any group of random people that doesn't include anybody with actual medical education) probably won't end up doing an appendectomy on anybody after I move to a deep rural area...
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#13Great news! Seems like I (not a doctor but probably the most medically-qualified person in any group of random people that doesn't include anybody with actual medical education) probably won't end up doing an appendectomy on anybody after I move to a deep rural area...
An appendectomy might be easier than procuring the necessary antibiotics in a deep rural area, depending on how rural....
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#14So no need to have appendixes removed prior to being stationed in Antarctica anymore?
Wait is that a requirement?
From the Australian Government - Department of the Environment and Energy, Australian Antarctic Division:
The answer is no, however doctors who are wintering at Australian Antarctic stations are required to have their appendix removed. This is because there is usually only one doctor on station during winter, and evacuation back to medical care in Australia is impossible for at least part of the year. The requirement dates from the 1950s, when an Australian Antarctic doctor developed appendicitis on Heard Island and required a very challenging evacuation back to Australia.
In 1961 a Russian doctor successfully removed his own appendix at Novolazarevskaya station in Antarctica. With no outside help possible, he used local anaesthetic and had two expeditioners assist with surgical retractors and a mirror so that he could see what he was doing. The operation was a success and the doctor was back on duty within two weeks. It's not a situation that Australian Antarctic doctors would like to find themselves in!
As part of their overall medical review, all expeditioners are required to have a dental check before they depart for Antarctica within six months of their departure date. There is no requirement for expeditioners to have their wisdom teeth removed unless the dentist identifies that they may cause a problem over winter. The station doctor has eight days of training in emergency dentistry as part of their preparation, but this does not include wisdom teeth extraction.
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/people-in-anta...
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#15Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#16Great news! Seems like I (not a doctor but probably the most medically-qualified person in any group of random people that doesn't include anybody with actual medical education) probably won't end up doing an appendectomy on anybody after I move to a deep rural area...
An appendectomy might be easier than procuring the necessary antibiotics in a deep rural area, depending on how rural....
Being a person fairly interested in medical science and lacking insurance I always take care to have some antibiotics for just a case (I ask friends from Russia to get them for me, you can buy antibiotics without prescriptions there) although I hardly ever use any actually. Needless to say, I'm going to take quite a selection with me when I travel to some place where they're hard to get and there are no doctors around. By the way one should better have antibiotics ready when performing this kind of surgery or chances are their patient is going to die of sepsis.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#17That's great to hear. However, keep in mind that appendicitis is still an extremely serious condition that will kill you if left untreated. The fact that you can avoid surgery in some cases doesn't mean that surgery is not an adequate treatment.
It's amazing how medicine has advanced: We can now cure illnesses with very minimal amount of invasiveness required in most cases. Even before this news, open surgery was already mostly supplanted by laparoscopy, which involves only a few tiny cuts.
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#18This is a tangent but... Medical Science is an interesting institution. It's a huge, formalized truth-values finding process... A half sibling of Law (the other formal truth finding institution) and Science (the abstract unformalized institution).
Yeah, so unfortunately regarding medical science "formalized truth-values finding process" is actually about as far from reality as you could be. "Politicized agenda-propelled random search" would be closer. However, we still slowly are making progress thanks to new technologies, so all is not lost...
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#19Earlier quoted context omitted.
An appendectomy might be easier than procuring the necessary antibiotics in a deep rural area, depending on how rural....
Being a person fairly interested in medical science and lacking insurance I always take care to have some antibiotics for just a case (I ask friends from Russia to get them for me, you can buy antibiotics without prescriptions there) although I hardly ever use any actually. Needless to say, I'm going to take quite a selection with me when I travel to some place where they're hard to get and there are no doctors aroun…
> I ask friends from Russia to get them for me
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-09-01-0209010...
Re: After century of removing appendixes, doctors find antibiotics can be enough
#20a little too late perhaps?