Nausea/Motion sickness with laparoscopic surgery
Started by PhillipJFry
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When doing it or when watching it? I had some issues as a medical student and junior resident. But as the operator, no issues. Maybe something to do with the one somewhat controlling the screen action and other parts of my body being involved. As an observer, I found it helpful to pick a fixed point on the screen and to glance away briefly regularly.
You're def on target. I recall a partner with whom I worked on the ambulance. In the passenger seat? Sick. Driving? Fine.
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When doing it. It is for certain cases/attendings who move the camera a lot.
I would talk to your primary. Maybe they can give you some meclizine or a scope patch or somethinf to try before one of those cases. Admittedly I am not up to date on the best short-acting meds for motion sickness.
That sucks. Any chance you can have someone else hold the camera. I have mild issues when people move the camera too much but luckily my cases are very short.
If you do go this route. Don't use your actual primary physician or real name/insurance.
This stuff gets picked up when applying for disability insurance. May not result in any issues but could cause you a headache down the road.
May not be an option as a resident, but as an attending you can choose to use one of the many laparoscopic scope holding devices that are available. They can be a pain to set up and less dynamic then an assistant, but less bouncy also. Or go more into robotics and control the camera yourself.
