WILTIMS #266: Just a taste

What!? A one-off daily post?! Surely such a thing is not done anymore!

Well here it is, but just so you don't die of shock, it's still a day late. And don't call me Shirley.

This week was just the right length: half a day. Between study days, exam day, and a snow day there wasn't much time for actual class. We started gastrointestinal pathology/pharmacology on Friday which has already proved to be one of the grosser looking pathology sections. Mmm fatty, bloody ulcers! Amusing that the organ system in charge of eating is the one that makes me not want to...

YesterdayIL: Several antipsychotic drugs can be used as antiemetics (anti-nausea/vomiting medications) but you get all the nasty side effects, so they are usually not your first choice.

There is a relatively common congenital abnormality known as tracheoesophageal fistula where the esophagus doesn't form correctly and instead comes off the trachea. The vast majority of cases have a particular arrangement where the esophagus dead-ends right after splitting off from the trachea and then the lower esophagus connects to the respiratory tract near the branching of the main bronchi. Nearly every other connection combination is possible, but all are far less likely. All of these are discovered very quickly and, assuming nothing terrible happens first (like the baby aspirating food and developing pneumonia), it is easily surgically corrected.

Type C is the most common. source

Schatzki's ring is a pathological finding that is seen with a chronic sliding hernia of the stomach up through the diaphragm. In case you, like me prior to med school, don't exactly know what a hernia is: a hernia is any condition where part of an organ protrudes through the cavity containing it. Some types you may have heard of are an inguinal hernia, where intestine escapes into the groin area; an umbilical hernia, where the intestine pushes through the relatively weak area around the belly-button (umbilicus); and a hiatal hernia, where the stomach slides up through the diagram... which can cause scarring and a Schatzki's ring! Woo, made it back around!