Adhesion Pain Treated in Voice Activated O-R Airdate: Monday, July 31, 2000 5:00pm
Jill Garrett Healthwatch 16 Reporter This Operating Room at Community Medical Center in Scranton has a voice of its own. It's Hermes. Hermes is everywhere. It's an operating room system that is voice activated. The doctor's voice and Hermes direct operating room cameras, even provides an on screen arrow for teaching. It can also take dictation from surgeons. This day there's patient from Ohio. Dena Lomax didn't come here for Hermes. She here at for the nation's first Adhesion Center at Community Medical Center. Its surgeons Harry Reich and Jay Redan will use Hermes during her procedure. Dena Lomax, Shelby, Ohio, "I was told they are the best in the world." Just before the surgery Dena told me - her pain started with a tubular pregnancy in 1993 - when the tube was stapled together. She continued to have pain and a series of surgeries that didn't help, "In May of 96, I started having abdominal pain. When I went to the hospital they ended up taking out my appendix. That doctor told me there was nothing wrong with me and I'd be okay. It was all in my head."" After a hysterectomy, she learned adhesions - a sticky film like substance was the problem. C-M-C surgeons see a combination of endometriosis and adhesions are binding some of her organs together. Dr. Jay Radan, "Here you can see how her bowel is stuck. So when she tries to go to the bathroom - she has a tough time." The adhesions affect her bowel, intestines, stomach,"What we're trying to do is restore all normal anatomy, her bowels - get things back to where they belong." These doctors find the most common adhesions are linked to hysterectomies. They are part of a clinical trial to see if they can keep adhesions from coming back. Dena Lomax was able to return to Ohio a few hours after her surgery. Her doctors believe she will be able to enjoy a normal life. Slowly we shall have voices heard all over regarding this often misdiagnosed pain.
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As Always, in Friendship,
Bob Markford