Sentara Norfolk General Will Show Surgeries Live on the Web
By Nancy Young, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
May 8–The public will be able to see surgical procedures at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital performed live over the Internet for the first time on Thursday from 3 to 4 p.m.
The procedures shown will be minimally invasive surgeries on two patients with peripheral vascular disease, a condition in which the vessels that carry blood to the arms and legs are narrowed and cause poor circulation.
While the surgeries are going on, Dr. Marc Glickman, a vascular surgeon at Norfolk General, will explain what is happening in the operating rooms as well as discuss some of the signs and symptoms of peripheral vascular disease. People with the disease are more susceptible to strokes and heart attacks.
“It’s a condition that goes untreated a lot because people don’t realize that what they’re feeling is so severe,” said Cheri Hinshelwood, a Sentara spokeswoman. Often, she said, people mistake the pain in their legs as muscular rather than vascular.
Those who watch the surgeries live — at www.sentara.com/explorehealth or www.or-live.com — can send e-mails asking questions.
The latter Web site is a nationwide clearinghouse for surgery broadcasts and archives. It lists 120 participating hospitals and other medical institutions that use the site to market their expertise in surgical procedures. On Thursday, the site will also carry live a partial laryngectomy to performed at a hospital in Baton Bouge, La.
Surgery broadcasts are “just one more way for us to reach the public…and give them awareness of some of the health options,” Hinshelwood said.
— Reach Nancy Young at (757) 446-2947 or nancy.young@pilotonline.com
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Copyright (c) 2007, The Virginian-Pilot, Norfolk, Va.
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
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