Please join me this Saturday February 13 at 7 a.m. on the People's Pharmacy with Terry and Joe Graeden. It will be my pleasure,once again, to be a guest on the People's pharmacy. This will be my fifth or sixth appearance on this nationally syndicated NPR show. The primary focus of this week's show will be chronic sinusitis and its relationship to allergy. Certainly, other areas of interest such as tinnitis Ménière's syndrome, vertigo, snoring and sleep disorders, as well as chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia will certainly come up during the discussion as well.
Please join myself, Joe and Terry and Dr. Rick Pillsbury, chairman at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine Department of Otolaryngology, for what is sure to be a lively and interesting discussion. Please call in at that time so that we can do our best to answer your challenging questions.
See you then, but if you missed the show, you can obtain a CD of the show through the People's pharmacy. Thanks again, Ron.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
PRINCIPLES OF PRACTICE FOR PATIENTS WITH CHRONIC RHINOSINUSITIS (CRS)
(Originally composed 2004, amended 2009)
1. Seek first to understand the patient, and then be understood.
2. In order to care for the patient, you must truly care for the patient.
3. You are treating and caring for the patient, NOT the patient's CT scan.
4. Begin with an end in mind - that being the safe and effective resolution of the patient's symptoms -
NOT what might disturb the physician about the patient's CT scan.
5. Listen to the patient, and construct a treatment plan (which might include surgical intervention) to
reconcile that which concerns the patient. It is inappropriate to perform radical surgical procedures,
with great inherent risks to the patient, when attempting, simply, to improve the patient's quality of
life - as per their specific requests.
6. Always remember, as the surgeon, to carefully review with the patient the RISK BENEFIT RATIOS of
any procedures suggested to the patient. When treating Chronic Rhinosinusitis, the surgeon is not
confronting a life threatening entity, such as cancer or severe vascular disease. The sinus surgery is
utilizing a sinus surgical procedure as part of thoughtful, evidence based, holistic approach to
reconciling the chronic symptoms of sinusitis which do not threaten the patients very life but often
jeopardize the patients quality of life. Therefore, the inherent risks of such a sinus procedure must
be those appropriate for and commensurate with the symptoms the patient most wants resolved
and the character of post-operative recovery should be essentially uneventful.
Initial surgical procedures, performed for the quality of life improvement sought by patients suffering from chronic sinusitis, should seek to repair and preserve the inherent immune functions of the sinuses, should be inherently very low risk procedures, low morbidity procedures, which require brief recovery periods, as well as highly effective procedures which rarely require revision surgery.
(Originally composed 2004, amended 2009)
1. Seek first to understand the patient, and then be understood.
2. In order to care for the patient, you must truly care for the patient.
3. You are treating and caring for the patient, NOT the patient's CT scan.
4. Begin with an end in mind - that being the safe and effective resolution of the patient's symptoms -
NOT what might disturb the physician about the patient's CT scan.
5. Listen to the patient, and construct a treatment plan (which might include surgical intervention) to
reconcile that which concerns the patient. It is inappropriate to perform radical surgical procedures,
with great inherent risks to the patient, when attempting, simply, to improve the patient's quality of
life - as per their specific requests.
6. Always remember, as the surgeon, to carefully review with the patient the RISK BENEFIT RATIOS of
any procedures suggested to the patient. When treating Chronic Rhinosinusitis, the surgeon is not
confronting a life threatening entity, such as cancer or severe vascular disease. The sinus surgery is
utilizing a sinus surgical procedure as part of thoughtful, evidence based, holistic approach to
reconciling the chronic symptoms of sinusitis which do not threaten the patients very life but often
jeopardize the patients quality of life. Therefore, the inherent risks of such a sinus procedure must
be those appropriate for and commensurate with the symptoms the patient most wants resolved
and the character of post-operative recovery should be essentially uneventful.
Initial surgical procedures, performed for the quality of life improvement sought by patients suffering from chronic sinusitis, should seek to repair and preserve the inherent immune functions of the sinuses, should be inherently very low risk procedures, low morbidity procedures, which require brief recovery periods, as well as highly effective procedures which rarely require revision surgery.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Welcome to my new blog. With the incredible assistance of my wonderful friend Ricky, we at Chapel Hill Ear Nose and Throat Facial Plastic Surgery have decided to establish this blog page. For those of you who know me already, you know, I really like to talk. And I really,really enjoy talking to my patients about the problems that bring them to see us. With that in mind, I thought it might be helpful to start this blog page and share the thoughts and ideas that my patients bring to us and the concepts we develope together as a team.
Since the medical side of my practice is primarily concerned with patient's complaints relevant to allergic problems, hearing problems, snoring problems and all manner of form of symptoms related to chronic sinusitis, this particular blog will concentrate on those patient concerns. Any questions about facial plastic surgery will be covered by a future blog page dedicated to that specific area.
Since I thoroughly enjoy " thinking out of the box",and in this case, the box is often the sinuses, it is my plan to share with you, on a weekly basis, at least the
thoughts and sometimes unique ideas that come to us, always with the assistance of our patients. Hopefully some of these thoughts will help you to reconcile the symptoms that bother you most and are at the genesis of why you came to this site in the first place.
In an effort, to facilitate your understanding in this area, and ultimately to reconcile your symptoms, I've included my my e-mail address so that we can communicate. directly. I will try to get back with you with answers to your questions on a regular basis as well-at least weekly.
Hope this site is a win-win for all of us. I look forward to get a getting to know you and hopefully helping you.
Thanks a lot, Ron
rongerbe01@nc.rr.com
Since the medical side of my practice is primarily concerned with patient's complaints relevant to allergic problems, hearing problems, snoring problems and all manner of form of symptoms related to chronic sinusitis, this particular blog will concentrate on those patient concerns. Any questions about facial plastic surgery will be covered by a future blog page dedicated to that specific area.
Since I thoroughly enjoy " thinking out of the box",and in this case, the box is often the sinuses, it is my plan to share with you, on a weekly basis, at least the
thoughts and sometimes unique ideas that come to us, always with the assistance of our patients. Hopefully some of these thoughts will help you to reconcile the symptoms that bother you most and are at the genesis of why you came to this site in the first place.
In an effort, to facilitate your understanding in this area, and ultimately to reconcile your symptoms, I've included my my e-mail address so that we can communicate. directly. I will try to get back with you with answers to your questions on a regular basis as well-at least weekly.
Hope this site is a win-win for all of us. I look forward to get a getting to know you and hopefully helping you.
Thanks a lot, Ron
rongerbe01@nc.rr.com
Saturday, January 30, 2010
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