Dr. Renee Marinelli has Dr. Sahil Mehta on the line today to discuss an interventional radiology case that he has experienced. It teaches us about medicine, its implications, and how we treat patients throughout the years.
Dr. Mehta came across this case as an intern before he knew anything about interventional radiology. He was presented with a woman who had dyspnea on exertion.
[2:39] Dr. Mehta’s evaluation.She had been progressively losing her breath over the course of three weeks, prompting her to finally seek care. Her medical history was really interesting; she had been diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma at seventeen-years-old and was around fifty years older now. She had gotten radiation therapy to treat this, which caused several complications later in life.
[8:26] Going through her records.The patient brought all of her medical records with her, and Dr. Mehta had to sort through them for necessary information. It was a lot of work and took a few days.
[10:21] Narrowing down the causes of her current issue.Like anything else in medicine, there was a checklist that had to be gone through. The doctors initially believed that may have had pneumonia, but antibiotics did not help so they had to dig deeper. Eventually, a CT scan was ordered, and SVC syndrome was discovered.
[14:33] Takeaways from this case.Dr. Mehta says the real takeaway is the consequences of medical treatment that we don’t know about. There are things we can look back on from decades ago that we think are crazy but were tested and accepted at the time. The same thing might happen decades from now.
[16:48] Dealing with public distrust of medicine.Stay humble and realize that we don’t have all the answers. We work with the best of our knowledge and capabilities.
[21:58] Weighing risks and benefits.There is always a weighing of risks and benefits in medicine. Radiation therapy was quite new when this patient had received it, but we still use it today to treat cancer.
[25:08] Closing thoughts.It’s important to remember that we can learn something from every single patient we meet.
The Emperor of All Maladies: https://www.amazon.com/Emperor-All-Maladies-Biography-Cancer/dp/1439170916
