guess that mass

The uterus...its an organ that I didn't operate on much during general surgery residency. It fell under the realm of the gynecologists. In fact, the gynecologists usually took care of anything involving the "female organs" (and, in turn, they would call us for almost anything involving the bowel).

Right now, there are no gynecologists here. Hence, I now operate on the uterus, tubes, and ovaries.  Turns out, as long as you know the anatomy and have an experienced surgeon to consult when things are unusual (as they often are here), its not that complicated.

In addition to the 105 (!) C-sections  I've done so far, I've also removed a few uteri and ovaries. Here are a couple pics:

this was the second elective hysterectomy I've done here (uterus is on bottom right). For reference, the scalpel is 14 cm long (about 5 1/2 inches). I'm not sure what this mass is...but it was big.

This is the inside of a 15cm ovarian cyst that had twisted on itself (torsed). After removing it, I cut it open and found a tooth inside!  Although it seems bizarre, having a tooth growing inside an ovarian mass is a kind of a good thing because it means it was a benign tumor called a dermoid cyst. Those cysts can have anything from hair, teeth, eyes, bone, etc. in them. Fascinating, huh?