Pre-med needs help with urological terms for personal statement

[markboonya]

Hi, i am writing my personal statement right now and i wanted to touch upon a specific example from my experience shadowing a urologist in the OR. I remember during one procedure (he was using an endoscope.. i forgot what the exact procedure was) and he was yelling at a nurse for hanging the wrong platic bag (filled with some clear liquid) on that metal rod (i am assuming based on TV that metal rod is the same rod that IV bags are suspended on). so my question is whats that metal rod thing called? what is the clear fluid in the bag called? he made some big deal about it being hung at a certain height so gravity can drive the fluid out... i noticed that water is always being pumped in with the endoscope.. is that what the fluid is for? is it water? saline? ringers? any other possibilities?
I just wanted to lend some specificity to my personal statement to give it a nice touch. My point with this story for my personal statement was the nurse was intimidated by my preceptor's sometimes intimidating manner, and her uneasiness caused mistakes.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[teamdick]

Hope this helps. The urologist was using a cystoscope to look into the bladder. The metal rod is called an IV pole. Multiple fluids can be used with the cystoscope but it depends on the procedure that was being done. For a basic cystoscopy, just looking in the bladder, one can use just about any fluid, but usually normal saline. Since the urologist got upset at the fluid, he likely was doing something that also needed electrocautery, in which case the fluid does make a difference, in this case glycine is used rather than saline. The fluid is hung high so that gravity will allow it to run out, no rocket science involved here. The fluid is needed to distend the bladder so that a clear picture of the entire inner surface of the bladder can be seen. It will also dissipate some of the heat from the fiberoptic light.