knowledge is always valuable

[incandescens]

We've started research at work into the new requested updates for the OPCS-4 classification. This is the classification (a hierarchical nomenclature, aka big list of names in some sort of interior order) of interventions and procedures. We get requests from various sources about new procedures/interventions that they want added to the classification. Then we have to research the queries and find out whether the procedures they want (a) are things that should be described as procedures by our interior definitions, (b) are already in the classification anyhow, (c) are things that would be done once in a blue moon by very rare clinicians and therefore perhaps should be handled by bolting together existing codes rather than giving them their very own code, (d) what the procedures actually involve anyhow.

Today I have learned more than I wanted to know about ejaculatory ducts. ;)

---

All bureaucracies obey certain iron laws, and one of the oldest is this: get your seasonal leave booked early, lest you be trampled in the rush. I broke the rule this year, and now I’m paying the price. It’s not my fault I failed to book my Christmas leave in time — I was in hospital and heavily sedated. But the ruthless cut and thrust of office politics makes no allowance for those who fall in the line of battle: “You should have foreseen your hospitalization and planned around it” said the memo from HR when I complained. They’re quite right, and I’ve made a note to book in advance next time I’m about to be abducted by murderous cultists or enemy spies.

-- Overtime, Charles Stross

Comments

[archangelbeth]

ejaculatory ducts

...male, female, or both? *is curious*

[incandescens]

Male. They're where the vas deferens connects to the seminal vesicle: we have a request in for a specific code for transurethral resection of ejaculatory ducts (apparently usually done for the treatment of blockage).

And yes, that does mean inserting a scope up through the (male) urethra to cut out a bit of the tissue of the ejaculatory ducts. You may now cross your legs and wince. ;)

[archangelbeth]

I wonder if that's done to reverse a vasectomy, too... Aren't there some procedures which block the vas deferens, but don't cut segments of them out?

And I shall not wince much at the scope -- I've had a catheter, and males generally have much bigger (certainly longer!) urethras. They can suck it up if I had to, in a bumpy ambulance for an hour handle it

[incandescens]

To be honest, I'm not sure. I know that the vas deferens often gets ligated (tied up) after having been transected (cut through), but I'm not sure about otherwise. But I think that does have to be done percutaneously - by cutting through from the surface - rather than transurethrally, up through the urethra.

Hm. According to wikipedia there is a new operation out there which involves injecting an obstructive material into the vas deferens to block the flow of sperm. That would probably be it, and I imagine that could be done transurethrally with a flexible scope.

(hugs)

[archangelbeth]

*makes happy faces at Medical Data!*

O:D

*hugs*

[incandescens]

(eyes next submission in the stack)

Let me just tell you that cryptorchidism does not in fact involve flowers . . .

[amethyst-hunter.livejournal.com]

Today I have learned more than I wanted to know about ejaculatory ducts. ;)

*snicker*

[incandescens]

Such an educational job!