Gyn Onc

I had a few days of gynecologic oncology. I spent a morning in dypslasia clinic where we reviewed Pap smears (one is shown above) and saw patients who had previous cervical abnormalities. I got to do a few Pap smears and see a few abnormal exams. The following day, I spent clinic with the gyn onc service. I realized that while the majority of obstetrics and gynecology involves generally healthy women, the oncology service deals with very ill patients. One of our patients who wanted a surgery for cancer was not an ideal candidate; she was on dialysis for end stage renal disease, had a previous MI, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and hypothyroidism. At her clinic visit, her systolic was over 200 mmHg. Another patient I saw had presented to the emergency department with a hemoglobin of 2.7 (normal 13.5-15) from severe menstrual bleeding. This population of patients was a lot more serious than any other patients I had seen on the rotation. I was in the OR today with two long surgeries involving ovarian tumors; we did a pretty extensive pelvic and lymph node dissection, even resecting bowel for one of the cases. I also saw a cone biopsy for a cervical carcinoma in situ. It's been an interesting and educational week.

Image from Wikipedia, shown under GNU Free Documentation License.