7TH JULY 2009

9.00 AM

  • I arrived at the ward. Today, my day began with a ward round, lead by specialist Dr. T.  We checked out each and every patient, and while we stopped at a patient, Dr. T asked me about the patient.
  • Among the questions asked by Dr. T were about the classification of Thalassemia, the Glasgow Coma Scale, and about the pleural effusion.
  • Then, he also asked me to do the history taking and perform respiratory examination of the patient with pleural effusion.
  • The patient, 80 years old lady was admitted with complaint of breathlessness. I did respiratory examination, and general inspection showed that diminishing respiratory movement on left side of the lung. There was also tracheal deviation. Auscultation was done, and there was no breath sound at the left side of lung, below 3rd intercostal space. Percussion was done, and I heard flatness over lower part of left lung. The initial diagnosis was pleural effusion, and it was confirmed by the x-ray.
  • Therefore, the doctors decided to do the pleural tap, as well as biopsy of pleura, to determine the nature of the fluid. Dr. B conducted the pleural tap. Here’s what I watched and learnt from her:

(Lagi …)