GynoFiles

Gynecologic Surgery often will require your gyno to place you in what is called trundelenburg position, and thus you are basically head down for a variable amount of time. This position can be strenuous to be maintained, and in fact too long and you can get nerve strains or damage, eye injuries, more trouble with anesthesia as breathing can be more difficult with your organs pressed against your diaphragm, and even hair loss has been reported from surgeries with too much trundelenberg! 20 degrees of tilt  is usually sufficient for the gyno to preform surgery. Dr. Virginia Mason at Virgina Mason Medical Center in Seattle actually strapped her iPad onto the bed, and used the clinometer app to measure just how tilted her patients were. She tried to see if complications were really less in a less tilted group, but that has not been studied quite enough yet to affect current guidelines. But one thing the group agreed, the iPad app made it easy to see exactly how tilted their patients...

Your gynecologist may have stood you on your head before for a better peek at the cervix at the time of a pap smear or at your pelvic organs at the time of abdominal gynecologic surgery, but did you know that tilt-table-head-down position had a name? The name is Trundelenburg Position. Originally described as "Elevated Pelvic Position" it was published as an insightful breakthrough in 1890. He realized quickly that in vaginal surgery or bladder surgery this position also provided wide views that were very beneficial. In gynecology we only know him for the famous table position, in fact us gynos call out all the time, " more trundelenburg please" to get the nurses or assistants to tip the table in that direction, but just a bit steeper, and so forth. It is a very useful position, although recent gyno surgeons have cautioned that too steep a Trendelenburg position can be quite difficult for the patient leading to various complications such as sliding and damage to th...