Technology in Medicine (Sci-fi or Reality?)

Our group found it interesting how strong and how much connective tissue there was. It was also cool and creepy when the skin was all the way off because it is an unusual sight. Our group found it difficult to not break the muscle bellow while pulling hard to break the connective tissue this was not helped by the amount of fat our rabbit had. The amount of fat hidden inside the skin was surprising to us because the rabbit was fairly small and it was not a large factor in the demonstration. We also were surprised to see that the heart was so small compared to the rest of the body. Our group is excited to see the actual internal organs of the rabbit as today we mostly tanned the rabbit.

Welcome to the blog of team Scrubs: Alexandra and Amy.

Today we facetimed Dr. Kwong and learned about the life of a trauma surgeon and a little bit more about oncology. We then practiced suturing on bananas and finished our gene modification experiment.

Movie of the day:

Summary of our day:

We first sutured our bananas.

 

Then we took out the finished result of our experiment from Day 3.

Our experiment was successful because our bacteria colonies were glowing (although we only had 2)!

We’ll catch you tomorrow! See you then!

~SCRUB OUT~

Today we delved deeper into the rabbit. It was a journey through the rabbit’s digestive system, which included the liver, the gallbladder, the kidneys, the pancreas, small and large intestine, the caecum, the urinary bladder, and more. After uncovering the organs, we cut into the stomach which revealed the rabbit’s diet- greens. We then moved the small and large intestine to the side, and traced a tube from the kidneys to locate the urinary bladder. Lastly, we uncovered the spine and the vertebrae underneath the layers of muscle.

After we finished dissecting, we watched Dr. Todd and Mrs. Burnett saw off the rabbit’s foot, and assign groups to create a prosthetic for the rabbit that would replace the front paw. We decided to make a wheel prosthetic to attach to the bone for a wide range of movement, and because we thought it would be out of the ordinary and that the final 3D printed version would look cool. We created the skeleton/plan in Fusion, and it will be printed and later attached onto the rabbit’s foot.

Welcome to the blog of team Scrubs: Alexandra and Amy.

Today we explored the abdominal cavity of James. We used scissors to cut through the skin but made sure not to cut too deep so we could preserve the organs.

We then explored the abdominal cavity, looking for the liver, stomach, gall bladder, kidney, caecum, pancreas, urinary bladder, testes (we all had males), and spleen.

 

We then decided to cut through the stomach. This is what we saw:

Since rabbits are herbivores, it was concluded that the green inside of the stomach was some type of grass that the rabbit was feeding on.

We also decided to cut through tissue to find the spine, and although our group couldn’t find the spine, another group did!

To take it one step further, we amputated James’s paw and decided to make a prosthetic. We took measurements to ensure a perfect fit on the prosthetic. Here is the design:

We decided on this design because the sphere on the top would work as a wheel that could help James function better than he did before.

At the last part of the day, we started watching a cancer documentary. It talked about how cancer treatment has progressed throughout the 1900s through 2000s.

We’ll catch you tomorrow! See you then!

~SCRUB OUT~

Today, our group explored the internal organs of the rabbit, Spencer. First, we examined the thoracic cavity. We looked at the lungs and found that on the right side, there were four lobes of the lungs while there were only three lobes on the left. We also traced the aorta from the ascending aorta to the aortic arch to the descending aorta. Our group also examined the heart and identified the four chambers of the heart. Next, we cut open the abdomen to see the internal organs. The most apparent structures were the liver, the small and large intestines and the cecum. The small and large intestines and the cecum were interwoven tube-like structures that covered the rest of the abdomen. After these organs were lifted and put to the side, the kidneys, which were not on the same location on both sides, were found along with the stomach, the gall bladder (in between the lobes of the liver), and the spleen. The pancreas was not as easy to locate, but it was finally found on the right side, under the stomach. The liver and spleen were both relatively dark in color compared to the other structures, because there was a lot blood inside of them when the bunny died. Our group also traced the veins from the kidneys the bladder, which lead to the penis and testis area. After finding all of the internal organs, we cut through the muscle of the inner dorsal wall to see the spinal cord. We exposed three vertebrae, which were ring-like structures.

Today, we began with an exciting field trip through the anatomy of a rabbit. After previously investigating in the thoracic cavity of the rabbit, we then moved down to the digestive organs and regions of the rabbit. We first carefully cut down the rest of the rabbit, exposing the digestive organs including the liver, small and large intestine, gallbladder, pancreas, stomach, and more. The most interesting thing that we noticed was that the two kidneys were off center. It seemed that the left kidney was slightly lower than the right kidney. However, it seemed that most of the rabbit being dissected also had this consistent in their anatomy. Also, we were able to open the stomach to see what was being digested before the rabbit had perished. We did not expect to see any bones as rabbits are herbivores and we were not surprised to find that there were in fact no bones. However, we did find it surprising how densely packed the stomach was with a green substance. I never expected the stomach to be completely and totally filled with the green, vegetable substance. We then were able to further investigate within the anatomy of the rabbit, by working to expose the spine. We managed to expose the spine, but it was most likely the most difficult part of the investigation. This is because we were exposing the spine from the anterior side of the rabbit, meaning that we had to work through large amounts of muscle, as well as the spinal cord. This made the exposing of the spine the most difficult part of the journey. However, once we did uncover the spine, we were able to find the lumbar vertebrae. This field trip was a very interesting experience in which we were able to completely see and visualize what we had learned about prior to the experience.

Following the field trip of the rabbit, we had the opportunity to formulate a prosthetic appendage to be attached to the wrist using the software program Fusion. We used a power saw to saw the paw off of the rabbit, giving us the opportunity to come up with an idea for a prosthetic appendage to give the rabbit more functions. We used Fusion to create a prosthetic that we would then 3D print to glue and attach to the wrist of the rabbit. Our group decided to create a “fly swatter” appendage in order to give the rabbit the benefit of having higher self-defense techniques. The rabbit could use this appendage to “swat” at predators or competitors for food. While creating the prosthetic in Fusion, we had to take note of the exact measurements of the fused radius and ulna of the rabbit’s wrist, as we had to create a base that would seamlessly fit onto the bones. This experience has allowed us to think outside of the box and put different concepts together in order to create something that would ultimately benefit and expand the functions of a rabbit.

Today, our class had the chance to listen to and ask questions to Dr. Dienst through Skype. He first presented important areas of the heart as well as his own heart. As he was explaining the different methods of fixing ruptured aortas, he also mentioned that 70% of the methods used today was no around when he started his medical career. This has given me a great insight in what doctor’s goes through. As a doctor there is a responsibility of lives in the hospital and outside of the hospital. The process of just making the stents seems interesting too, since the new technology like 3D printer gets involved. Talking to Dr. Dienst was a valuable experience.

It was interesting to learn about how much medicine has advanced in the past few years. According to Dr. Dienst, ~70% of the current medical procedures were not being performed when he was first a doctor.  In order to keep up with new medicine, he said that he reads six or seven articles per day.  It was also interesting to hear about how much medical technology has advanced.

Welcome to the blog of team Scrubs: Alexandra and Amy.

Since it is the first day of this discovery term, we got our rabbit, named him James, and started the dissection.

Today we tanned James and opened him up from the thoracic region and up through most of his esophagus and trachea. We started tanning by cutting a slit right below the rib area and then continuing the cutting up to the throat.

We had to make sure not to cut through too many layers because the goal was just to take off the skin layer. Along the way, we used a probe to poke out a whole lot of connective tissue. Overall, the skin is now detached in most places, including the lower parts of the limbs. By the time we were done tanning, Amy was able to stick her hand through the skin layer.

Then, we made a deeper incision through the thoracic cavity where we broke the ribs and saw the heart, lungs, trachea, and more.

We then cut more to expose the trachea and esophagus.

Here is what we ended up with at the end of Day 1:

We’ll catch you tomorrow! See you then!

~Scrub Out~

  

        

The most interesting thing that happened during the dissection was examining the heart and lungs of the rabbit. We had some difficulty cutting open the chest cavity of the rabbit without damaging the heart and lungs of the rabbit. We started cutting open the rabbit too low at the liver instead of the just below the ribs. This caused us to have to cut through the ribs to expose the heart and lungs. I thought that it was interesting how small they were in the large rabbit. It was also interesting that the heat and lungs were small, because rabbits hop very quickly and are quite fast.

The most difficult part of the dissection was determining the best way to make incisions and cuts on the rabbit. When tanning the rabbit we did not want to cut into the muscle of the rabbit which was why it was so difficult. We also had some difficulty cutting open into the chest cavity of the rabbit without damaging the heart and lungs. Identifying the body parts and organs was also difficult, especially for people who have no prior experience. Beyond that, clean-up was difficult due to all the hair getting everywhere.

The most surprising part of the dissection was how easy it is to remove the skin of the rabbit. With the fetal pigs, my group had some difficulty getting into the pig. We had no such difficulty getting into the rabbit. The connective tissue was very easy to remove and only when there was some fat between the skin and the muscle was it somewhat difficult.

We are looking forward to dissecting out the rabbits heart and closer examining it. This will be very interesting because we were unable to do this when dissecting the fetal pigs. We have previously learned how the heart works and how blood flows through the heart, so it will be very interesting to see what the heart look like in person.