Fortunately, most of the issues that patients discuss with us are routine – at least in terms of making a correct diagnoses. For example, if you come to the doctor with complaints such as back pain, fever & cough, rectal bleeding, jaundice or burning with urination – it is likely that a secure diagnosis will be made expeditiously. Of course, any of these common symptoms might be caused by a rare illness, but in general, common symptoms are caused by common conditions. That is why a physician who is evaluating a patient with a fever is not likely to consider malaria as a leading diagnostic consideration, even though a Google search will include this illness on the fever list. . The above symptoms are objective and concrete. Vague symptoms are much more difficult to unravel because they can often be explained by a variety of medical and psychological conditions. Do you think a physician would have an easier time evaluating a patient with a ...
Gallbladder removal, known as cholecystectomy, is one of the most common surgical procedures performed. Over a million Americans will give up their gallbladders this year. The most common gallbladder symptom is abdominal pain which is usually caused by gallstones. There are other reasons that gallbladders are removed which I will leave aside in this post. It’s very gratifying for physicians when a patient enjoys a pain free life after gallbladder removal. However, every gastroenterologist and general surgeon has seen patients whose abdominal pain lives on after cholecystectomy. This is a frustrating scenario primarily for patients but also for the medical professionals. Some of these disappointed patients had consulted with numerous physicians for advice on their abdominal pain. Did all of these physicians mess up? How could this happen? Of course, physician error can never be excluded since we doctors, like everyone, are flawed member...