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CASE NOTES
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PROGRAMME INFO |
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Dr Mark Porter gives listeners the low-down on what the medical profession does and doesn't know. Each week an expert in the studio tackles a particular topic and there are reports from around the UK on the health of the nation - and the NHS.
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Contact Case Notes |
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LISTEN AGAIN Ìý30 min |
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PRESENTER |
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"I spend half my week practising medicine and the other half writing and talking about it as a GP in Gloucestershire. Working on Case Notes has been a boon for both me and my patients. One of the principal aims of the programme is to keep our listeners up-to-date with the latest developments in healthcare, and to accomplish that I get to interview a wide range of specialists at the cutting edge of medicine. A rare privilege that ensures our listeners aren't the only ones to learn something new."
Mark Porter
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PROGRAMME DETAILS |
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 Full programme transcript >>
Bowel Cancer Surgery
Health Minister Lord Darzi made the headlines at the weekend thanks to a new surgical robot that could take minimally invasive keyhole surgery a stage further. He plans to use the machine to take diseased and damaged organs out through a patient’s mouth leaving NO external scars.
It may sound bizarre but it’s an entirely plausible step in a technological revolution that has transformed surgery over the last 30 years.
When I was a medical student in the eighties, having your gallbladder out meant a major op, a six inch scar, a week or so in hospital, and no work for at least a month. Today you are likely to be in and out in a day and could be back at your desk within a fortnight.
But fancy keyhole techniques are not the only developments – there has also been a sea change in the way some hospitals prepare their patients for operations, and care for them afterwards. And that’s what we are going to explore today.
Yeovil Academy
Yeovil District Hospital is one of a handful of units in the UK using the Enhanced Recovery Programme to treat patients with cancer of the bowel. A combination of minimally invasive keyhole surgery, special anaesthetic techniques, and a post-operative regime that means they are often back at home while many conventionally treated patients are still on a drip in the ward.
Patients on the new programme needn’t fast for long periods before the op, they can eat and drink normally almost immediately afterwards. They are normally home within just 4-5 days, at which stage a conventionally treated patient could be facing up to another week in hospital.
Yeovil has been running the programme since 2002 and it is such a success that the unit now runs an academy to pass on expertise to other NHS hospitals. I went to Somerset to meet the team. |
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