Spencer Park Wk6

BICU – necrotizing fasciitis

-                Dr. Bessey carried out wound debriding on the necrotizing fasciitis patient again this week

-                Once again, when the dressing was removed, we observed serious infection and significant amount of dead tissue, especially on the fat layer, which had turned brown and smelled terrible.

-                Similar to before, Dr. Bessey and the surgical technician, Jeff, cut away at her tissues until they met healthy tissue with functional blood vessels. They closed her up with sponge and dressing.

-                After the surgery, Dr. Bessey and Jeff were discouraged by the fast rate at which the bacteria were spreading through the fascia plane.

-                When we saw her later this week in the BICU, however, she finally showed some signs of slowing the infection. Even the periphery of the excision sites still showed healthy fat and her wound looked very clean. The team looked very much encouraged and more optimistic.

-                Besides the infection site, she has been healthy so the team thinks she may make quick progress if the wound stays healthy. It was a good day in the BICU.

Clinics

-                After so much talk about hypertrophic scarring, I finally saw a good case of it. A young man that experienced scald burns on his neck and his chest about a year ago came in for consult. Unfortunately, his body type is the type to create hypertrophic scars and they were very much visible. On top of his normal skin, he had inflamed red flaps of skin growing. The part of the reason for the scars being so elevated may be due to him not wearing the mask that pressurizes the wound sites to suppress the scarring from rising up.

Project

-                I’m still in the process of gathering the patient data. I spoke to Dr. Bessey and I may be staying an extra one to two weeks to finish the project before I return to Ithaca. We hope to get at least a presentation out of this study.