Dr. Dan Emails
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Schwartz
Sent: Sunday, September 26, 2004 8:19 PM
To: brooks@peanutsweb.com
Subject: question
Sup Goodmeat,
Excellent article on the vasectomy -- i'm a med student and decided to
find out why the vasectomy is called a vasectomy and why it's not
called a vasotomy. Good question.
vas is latin for "duct" -- good to know
deferens is latin for "carrying away" -- good to know
"-Ectomy" is greek for "cutting out" -- you knew that
"-Tomy" is greek for "incision" -- that's probably new
Ah, so herein lies the dilemma -- is a vasectomy a cutting out of vas?
Or is it an incising of vas? To answer your question a vasectomy is
actually an excision of a segment of the vas deferens, done (i believe)
in conjunction with a removal of the prostate to help you just that
little bit more with preventing any chance of child birth. So you
really are removing a portion of the vas. So it's not a misnomer --
take care,
Dr. Dan
--------------------------------
Daniel Perez Schwartz
Jefferson Medical College
All correspondence forwarded to
Daniel.P.Schwartz@jefferson.edu
Dr. Dan,
Thanks for the email. I had my suspicions about the vasectomy. When
I had mine done, I was all doped up on morphine. I was awake, and I
tired
to pay attention, but I could not see everything. If Doctors actually
remove
a segment of the vas deferens, then it makes sense that it should be
called a vasectomy.
This information has got me curious about other things now.
Why is it necessary to remove a segment of the vas deferens. Why
could you not just cut it and tie/cauterize the ends? What is done with
the
removed segments? Could I have donated it to less fortunate men with
weak vas
deferens? hehe
Also, why is a lobotomy called a lobotomy then. Is an entire lobe of
the brain being removed? If you are only removing a portion, or segment
of
any lobe, why is it not called a lobectomy. What about the appendectomy.
Are you removing the whole appendix, or just a segment of the appendix?
I don't mean to unload on you here, but I always forget to ask when I
am at the doctors office.
In all seriousness, thank you for the kind words and the informative
medical information. I will most likely try to incorporate this email
into
the site somehow. Please let me know if this is ok with you. I always try
to
double check on these things.
Good luck on the medical degree
Regards,
Brooks
Brooks,
Ahh I just looked it up in my Stedman's --
A lobotomy is not a removal of the lobe -- that's just popular fiction.
It's actually just cutting the nerves connecting the lobes. There is
such a thing as a lobectomy -- but they're rarely done, unless you have
a tumor. I don't think they really do lobotomies anymore -- but if
memory serves me correctly they used to be quite common.
I have no idea why they remove the segment of the vas deferens and not
just incise it -- but my guess is just that they really want to make
sure you don't have kids, and maybe so that in case you decide to
change your mind later on, well, i don't know how that actually works,
but it might make it easier somehow to reverse the process. I will
keep my eyes open for that one later on in my medical education.
Ah, the appendectomy -- that's removing the whole damn thing -- i've
seen that in plastic ziplocs -- it's like 4 or 5 inches long. It
serves no purpose whatsoever, so it's really not a big deal to remove
it.
Bottom line, these aren't misnomers, they've just been misinterpreted
by television, movies, etc. Oh, and feel free to post these comments
-- can i be your resident web doctor? One day some surgeon might put
me on the spot and ask me, "what is the difference between an ectomy
and an otomy?" And there, I might just know it, etiology and all.
Best,
Dr. Dan
|
