How much fine motor skill is needed to do GI?

[Meat Cookie]

The reason I ask is that I have not long ago developed an essential tremor. Runs in my family, both my mother and her father have it. I know this will only worsen with age and I wonder if I should forget about any procedurally-oriented specialties... I know that it can be controlled with things like propranolol or gabapentin, but these may not eliminate the tremor completely, so I'm curious to know how fine and precise are the skills of endoscopy, ERCP, etc...and any other specialties I shouldn't pursue.

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[scrub monkey]

from what i've seen, it doesn't take too much fine motor skill to drive the endoscope. even with an essential tremor, you should be fine.

 

[DR]

I agree, it doesn't take much fine motor skill, not like sewing or cutting. My advice would be to take an elective and try to get some exposure/practice with a scope and see how it is. My philosophy is to go for what you want first, then deal with any obstacles as they come. You'd be surprised by how you overcome things when you have to.

 

[GO_MEDPEDS]

How are you with X-box or other game systems? I think if you can handle those, then you should be just fine for the scoping biz!!!



Seriously, we have practice scopes where we are at, and I got a chance to "pull out" of a sigmoidoscopy and it really doesn't seem like those fine motor skills (which I don't have at all) were tested very much...

 

[sanfilippo]

one of the ercp gods at my school said with the video game craze, there will be a whole generation of extremely adroit endoscopists in the near future. -s.

 

[Meat Cookie]

Thanks for all your responses. Good to know that I have the option open to me.

 

[task]

I agree with the above.

The only caveat may be ERCP and EUS. There are some manipulations and techniqes in both those areas that may require a slightly more steady hand and good hand eye stuff. I don't think a benign essential tremor should be an obstacle towards those procedures, but I'll ask around amongst GI staff here.

 

[alfaromeo]

I'd agree with that - I'm a British Gastroenterology trainee and really believe that my aptitude for endoscopy is closely related to that for video-games!

Endoscopy isn't about fine motor skills like surgery - you're a long way from the action and there's a lot of damping between you and the pointy end of a 'scope. That's not to say that you don't need to be coordinated but a mild tremor shouldn't stand in your way.

 

[treitzdr]

you just bumped a 4+ year old thread ..

 

[nhtreehugger]

you just bumped a 4+ year old thread ..

I like it when people bump really old threads. I like looking at the date and try to remember what I was doing way back then. Why, in 2003 I was a junior in high school...lol