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