fainting during surgery?

[Angel1982]

I wouldn't worry about it. By the time you get through your anatomy course and have taken off the top of the skull with a bone saw and bisected the cranial vault down to the sternal notch with a tree saw with four of your tank mates securing the specimen by holding the shoulders and stabilizing the neck, you probably will be over your tendency to faint. And that's first year, so you'll know early on if you can do this w/o passing out.....

I'm not sure about it. I was fine during anatomy and even in OR before but you never know what gets you Every once in a while I will have to leave or even passed out once.

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[SangeeGirl]

Depending on the frequency of fainting it can be a medical problem. Some fainting isn't a case of over work. No faints indicate that you are weak or should be embarrassed. Changes to blood flow cause faints. It is important to find out the source of the faints and act with information, not an assumption about the cause. I have two friends who were fainters. Both have pacemakers now. One had a very low pulse rate, the other had extreme vasovagal faints that happened when he was sitting upright driving.

 

[justdoit31]

I fainted once- it was maybe 9:30am and I had eaten a good breakfast around 6:45am. The procedure was just a lap chole and I was holding stuff. I remember getting really lightheaded and dizzy and feeling like I was going to puke but I didn't want to be a wimp (this was week 7 of my 8 week rotation and while I hated surgery I wanted positive reviews)...

well before I knew it I had blacked out and the nurses were helping me up from the floor- I think mine was overheating and maybe low BS. I had some crackers and apple juice and cooled down then went back to OR.

The surgeon was so nice about it I was shocked. He let me go home early for the day and asked if I could babysit his kids (I was a nanny in college). I only scrubbed into a couple surgeries after that one (I had anesthesia as my last week) but never had another problem. I'm not a very squimish person so I don't think it had anything to do with what was going on in the operation- my favorite surgeries were the ones when you were elbows deep in an abdomen.

 

[neusu]

Not quite surgery, but we had a girl during my Ob/Gyn rotation that fainted and fell face first in to the field during a c-section.

Personally, I've almost fainted during some pedi spine cases where the room is 95 F and I'm wearing lead for 8 hours under the hot lights and a sterile gown. I swear I lose 10 lbs of sweat during those marathons.

 

[mmmcdowe]

I found that when I got light headed it was usually because I had tied the bottom of my mask too tight around my neck.

 

[loayshoubash]

have u had a solution for this yet? plz help

 

[NTF]

My classmate on surgery passed out during a kidney transplant while working the laparoscope; just crumpled to the ground and she was on a stool so she fell backwards. Same story as usual, she hadn't had time to eat breakfast. There was a high school student in the OR observing and when my classmate went down, she went down too. The attending just nonchalantly said, "Yeah, I have this effect on a lot of women."

My classmate was a rockstar in every other way on the wards and in the OR. I think one thing that was key was that she took the relentless ribbing from the attendings, residents & fellows about her passing out with good humor. I'm not sure what grade she got in the rotation but she must have done pretty well because she matched into Gen Surg at Baylor.

 

[supute]

try to avoid entering cases on an empty stomach. Big trouble in the making.

Heat + blood + hunger + tension = trouble

+1

 

[Darrka]

In

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[FunnyCurrent]

i've heard that most med students will faint sometime during surgery. having fainted once before during 1st year (completely unexpected), this sort of freaks me out... does anyone know why it happens or what you can do to prevent it?

Where did you hear this? Nobody ever faints

 

[Sarvish]

Where did you hear this? Nobody ever faints

To be fair, I don't think he'll remember 9 years after posting. I'm sure by now he's either fainted and recovered or just not fainted at all.

 

[VenusinFurs]

I get this frequently when I don't have enough sleep.

 

[loayshoubash]

Do you think ... propanolol will help ... ?!?

 

[SouthernSurgeon]

Do you think ... propanolol will help ... ?!?

I think propranolol would likely hurt

 

[Wordead]

I think propranolol would likely hurt

How about cocaine

 

[drcrispmd]

Never scrub on a case without eating. Keep granola or protein bar in your pocket every day. Do not lock your knees.
If you are sick &/or have a fever do not scrub. I almost fainted in a simple hernia repair. Didn't feel well, but didn't know how sick I was. Luckily the nurses were great where I was doing my rotation. took me to their lounge since it was closer, got me some water, took my vitals. Had a temp of 103. Dx with the H1N1. Having the flu in June was not fun. It made its' way through all of us on that rotation.

If you start to feel like you are going to faint. Speak up and tell the surgeon you don't feel well and need to sit down. They may give you a hard time, but it is better than fainting and contaminating the field.

 

[Krooskie]

I have a history of syncope and many many episodes of pre-syncope. For the last 3 years, I have episodes approximately every 3-6 months but they always occur when I'm bending my knees, am well hydrated, and have eaten recently. It typically even happens when I wear compression socks. It's fairly unpredictable. Sometimes, I'm able to hold it off just by clenching my legs muscles to force blood back up but other times, that is ineffective. After several times of fully collapsing (and developing a reputation for it in the ER I work at), I've learned to excuse myself when I feel the need to sit down rather than pushing myself and ending up on the ground. The doctors I work with are all super nice about it and understanding so I imagine that would be a common theme, even in departments outside of the ED. It's way better to have the embarrassment of needing to sit down than the embarrassment of a full syncopal event.

 

[moisne]

I get vasovagal syncopes all the time. (Even in church if they make me stand for long periods). My first time, I fainted and I woke up in PACU with ekg on me...

1. If you feel it coming, step back...
2. Don't try to tough it out
3. Eat and drink whenever possible
4. Chinese take outs
5. Compression stockings, waist binders
6. Isometric contractions
7. Walk in place or clonus like movements in your legs.

Good luck.


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[Sita_C]

I'm just going into residency and making the major choice now. Really, really interested in General Surgery. But, have the problem of orthostatic intolerance. Same old gig. Light headedness, nausea, breathlessness, palpitations. Maybe 5 times a month, after standing for more than 45min. Never actually fainted though.

Literally the only factor pulling me away from surgery.

Desperate for some advice on how to deal with this. And if I even can. Or whether to (sniff) settle for something with less standing time.

 

[moisne]

I'm just going into residency and making the major choice now. Really, really interested in General Surgery. But, have the problem of orthostatic intolerance. Same old gig. Light headedness, nausea, breathlessness, palpitations. Maybe 5 times a month, after standing for more than 45min. Never actually fainted though.

Literally the only factor pulling me away from surgery.

Desperate for some advice on how to deal with this. And if I even can. Or whether to (sniff) settle for something with less standing time.

I have vaso vagal syncope all the time. Similarly this happens at least weekly. I however, did faint a few times in long cases even with compression stockings. I choose a field that lets me be in the OR, sit whenever I need, still participate in the surgery and care afterwards. hint: choose anesthesia.

 

[hmockingbird]

I was queen of pre-syncope between surgery and OB. I had to sit down probably like five times lol. I feel like it got worse with time too! I’m pretty sure it was just a combo of heat and hypoglycaemia for me as I already have sensitivity to both... but also the smell of the Bovie still makes me gag!

 

[ColoraDO2020]

I was newly pregnant during my surgery clerkship and very vulnerable to the heat, hypoglycemia and hypotension that comes with the territory of being a medical student AND gravid.

An attending told me to befriend the circulating OR nurse and ask her to rip open an alchohol prep wipe if I was feeling faint and to take a few deep sniffs through my mask. Probably placebo effect, but I swear it worked, I would snap right out of my tunneling dizziness and be ready to go. Luckily for me, I guess huffing alcohol prep wipes a few times a week isn't teratogenic - my kid turned out fine.

The hard part was finding a friendly circulating nurse to help out - but that's been beat to death in previous threads, eh?

I had a circulating nurse do this as well for me during a c-section and it did wonders for me. I don't know why it works but it does.

 

[jurassicpark]

i've heard that most med students will faint sometime during surgery. having fainted once before during 1st year (completely unexpected), this sort of freaks me out... does anyone know why it happens or what you can do to prevent it?

I've never seen one med student faint. The closest I've seen was when I had a med student perform his first rectal exam, he said he felt sick and washed his mouth out. We were all curious why he was washing his mouth out..

I did fall asleep while doing an H&P once. I woke up and started asking the patient about the star spangled banner, she actually responded with a serious answer.

If you do feel like fainting during surgery put yourself someplace safe (on the ground) pronto! Try not to break any sterile field or fall onto anything.

 

[grishkam]

Hey guys, to continue this thread, I’m a premed, and passed out once in a doctors office (embarrassingly) when they were draining fluid from someone’s knee. Prior to that, I did not have any queasiness or issues of any kind, and had watched people receive shots, get blood drawn, etc. that being said, I hadn’t seen someone get fluid drained prior to that day.

Anyways, I understand that this happens and all that, but I’ve noticed that the things I used to be fine with seeing (injections or incisions for example) give me issues now, and I feel lightheaded. I haven’t passed out again, and have even been in an OR since then, but I feel like my sensitivity to this kind of stuff has gotten worse as I feel lightheaded/dizzy and very warm more often than I had noted before.

I want to become a surgeon one day, and I’m really worried this will prevent me from doing that. Will I get over it? Why does it seem to be getting worse? What do I need to do to fix it?

Ive wanted to be a surgeon more than anything for as long as I can remember, but I’m worried about it and now beginning to question whether I’m cut out for it even though I understand it happens to a lot of people. Can y’all help me out?

 

[Smurfette]

Hey guys, to continue this thread, I’m a premed, and passed out once in a doctors office (embarrassingly) when they were draining fluid from someone’s knee. Prior to that, I did not have any queasiness or issues of any kind, and had watched people receive shots, get blood drawn, etc. that being said, I hadn’t seen someone get fluid drained prior to that day.

Anyways, I understand that this happens and all that, but I’ve noticed that the things I used to be fine with seeing (injections or incisions for example) give me issues now, and I feel lightheaded. I haven’t passed out again, and have even been in an OR since then, but I feel like my sensitivity to this kind of stuff has gotten worse as I feel lightheaded/dizzy and very warm more often than I had noted before.

I want to become a surgeon one day, and I’m really worried this will prevent me from doing that. Will I get over it? Why does it seem to be getting worse? What do I need to do to fix it?

Ive wanted to be a surgeon more than anything for as long as I can remember, but I’m worried about it and now beginning to question whether I’m cut out for it even though I understand it happens to a lot of people. Can y’all help me out?

Sounds like this is mostly in your head; you need to shake off what happened before. If you are consciously thinking about how you feel and whether you might pass out because it happened to you before, you are more likely to do so. When a procedure is being done, you need to find something else to think about other than "am I feeling ok?". Maybe see if there's anything you can do to help, like grab gauze or supplies, to help distract you. That is easier said than done at your stage. You are still a premed, and have a lot more exposure to procedures in your future if you get into med school. Concentrate on getting into med school. Don't worry about whether or not you can be a surgeon based on your limited experiences. Once you're in med school, when procedures are being done, you'll be worrying about getting pimped, the indications/pathology prompting the procedure, and other stuff most of the time.

p.s. most of us surgeons have gotten lightheaded or passed out in the OR at some point. It happens for various reasons; it does not mean you can't be a surgeon.

 

[dpmd]

Sounds like this is mostly in your head; you need to shake off what happened before. If you are consciously thinking about how you feel and whether you might pass out because it happened to you before, you are more likely to do so. When a procedure is being done, you need to find something else to think about other than "am I feeling ok?". Maybe see if there's anything you can do to help, like grab gauze or supplies, to help distract you. That is easier said than done at your stage. You are still a premed, and have a lot more exposure to procedures in your future if you get into med school. Concentrate on getting into med school. Don't worry about whether or not you can be a surgeon based on your limited experiences. Once you're in med school, when procedures are being done, you'll be worrying about getting pimped, the indications/pathology prompting the procedure, and other stuff most of the time.

p.s. most of us surgeons have gotten lightheaded or passed out in the OR at some point. It happens for various reasons; it does not mean you can't be a surgeon.

I too suffer from a twitchy vagus nerve. Getting embarrassed or worried about it definitely doesn't help. Figuring out your prodrome and ensuring you keep the patient and yourself safe is the best way to deal with it. That and trying to figure out your triggers. For me the patient visibly or vocally in pain is a big one for me so I minimize my local only procedures and use lots of local. But other stuff can trigger me as well like dehydration, hunger, or even just certain times of the month.