Week 5: Pei Wen

The week began with two consecutive days in the Or. As we are now past the midpoint of our immersion program, Anais and I have observed several myomectomies and hysterectomies—some seemingly straightforward, while others more challenging. One case that particularly stood out to me this week was an open abdominal myomectomy.  While neither of us scrubbed in to observe as closely as other times, it quickly became clear that the patient was experiencing relatively more blood loss, likely attributed to the fibroids. During the procedure, we were introduced to CellSaver technology as well as various surgical hemostatic agents, including Floseal and Tisseel. These are used to control different types of bleeding, and it was interesting to see multiple sealants used at the same time for this surgery. Some of the materials comprising the sealants overlap with those we use in our lab, which is not surprising given the biochemical properties. However, seeing their use in real-world surgical applications provided a unique perspective on their functionality beyond the experimental or engineering context I was familiar with. Our short week concluded with our continued literature review presentation. Dr. Fenster and Dr. Wolf were particularly intrigued by a paper that discussed the development of wireless ring electrodes for monitoring preterm labor, as its design closely parallels the direction of our own project. As such, we will be exploring this paper more deeply as we move forward.