Week 7: Waiting, Waiting, Waiting
Jana E -
Good afternoon, all! I wish I had more exciting news or updates for the progression of my project, but this week has been a slow week, on account of both my site mentors being busy. Not to worry, I received confirmation the other day that they would look at my medical research paper draft and get back to me with edits as soon they could! The delay doesn’t bother me too much; as my week 6 title stated, some weeks are going to be slower than others, and that’s natural!
Anyway, this allows me some time to talk about the last bunch of variables I collected from my patients in the target population: angioplasty, stent, bypass surgery, bypass outcome, and case mortality. These variables were among the last that I collected because they are reliant on whether or not the patient had later hospital visits. An angioplasty is a non-invasive way of opening up blocked blood vessels a bit, by using a catheter to bring up a wire and deploy a balloon. A stent usually is attached to the balloon, and if you remember my explanation of what that is in my third post, it’s a small metal mesh tube that stays in the vessel to ensure it stays open. Including those two variables alerts me as to whether the patient had recurring problems/visits and whether the surgeon was able to lessen the risk.
Bypass surgeries are much more complicated: it’s when the surgeon cuts out a healthy artery from somewhere else (usually the chest) and places it in the stenosed area, to create a completely new pathway. Because of how complicated it is, it’s only done when the angioplasty and stent don’t work, and it might not always be a successful surgery. Case mortality obviously refers to whether the patient is alive or not. Usually, case mortalities are the ones with failed bypass surgeries, recurrent hospital visits, or consistent non-compliance with the doctor’s orders (not fixing diet or taking prescribed medication).
That’ll be all for now, thanks!
Jana
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