One of my old Resident Doctors was visiting us.
"We had fun" she said. "I still remember your SVP's test. Do you still do it?"
I smiled. I used to do things which were unorthodox, but would help the Residents remember things better. This test was to demonstrate how loose a ligature was, so that they would remember to tie tighter ligatures.
"No" I said. "The fun wears out if you do the same thing over and over."
After she went away, I sat thinking of the test. I used to call it SVP's test for want of a better term, not to immortalize my name. Anyway, there was nothing wrong with naming the test after me - after all I had developed it myself. Nothing great I suppose, but effective.
After a Resident Doctor had tied all ligatures while performing a hysterectomy, I would take a curved hemostat and try to pass it gently between the pedicle tied and the ligature. If it passed through, the ligature was loose. If it did not, the ligature was tight. Then I would make him/her put a figure-of-eight ligature over the ligated pedicle to avoid postoperative bleeding from the loosely ligated pedicle. Later I made it a policy to place figure-of-eight ligatures on all ligated pedicles for safety. Then this test became superfluous. I performed the test recently because a doctor trained in another institute wanted to do away with the placement of the safety ligatures - or rather did not know about them. The results are shown in the following picture.
The hemostat is seen to have passed through the ligatures on two pedicles. The test was thus positive on both the pedicles tested. Needless to say, I made that doctor place safety ligatures on all pedicles and advised to do so in all cases operated on subsequently.
"We had fun" she said. "I still remember your SVP's test. Do you still do it?"
I smiled. I used to do things which were unorthodox, but would help the Residents remember things better. This test was to demonstrate how loose a ligature was, so that they would remember to tie tighter ligatures.
"No" I said. "The fun wears out if you do the same thing over and over."
After she went away, I sat thinking of the test. I used to call it SVP's test for want of a better term, not to immortalize my name. Anyway, there was nothing wrong with naming the test after me - after all I had developed it myself. Nothing great I suppose, but effective.
After a Resident Doctor had tied all ligatures while performing a hysterectomy, I would take a curved hemostat and try to pass it gently between the pedicle tied and the ligature. If it passed through, the ligature was loose. If it did not, the ligature was tight. Then I would make him/her put a figure-of-eight ligature over the ligated pedicle to avoid postoperative bleeding from the loosely ligated pedicle. Later I made it a policy to place figure-of-eight ligatures on all ligated pedicles for safety. Then this test became superfluous. I performed the test recently because a doctor trained in another institute wanted to do away with the placement of the safety ligatures - or rather did not know about them. The results are shown in the following picture.
