Monday, March 19, 2012

Ouch!

The latest issue of Annals of Internal Medicine has a case report of a surgeon who incised a lesion on a patient's lip. While disposing of the scalpel, the surgeon stuck his finger. Subsequently, the surgeon developed a lesion at the site of the injury which didn't heal over a 6-week period. Turns out, the patient's lesion was a syphilitic chancre, and the surgeon developed a syphilitic chancre on his finger. Given the increase in syphilis that we are currently seeing, occupational transmission of syphilis shouldn't be a surprise. But I suspect the surgeon had some 'splaining to do to his significant other.

Photo:  DentalOrg.com
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1 comment:

  1. Eli PerencevichMarch 19, 2012 at 8:52 PM

    and to the patient! the great imitator:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1272769/?page=1

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