NEWSLETTER---THE SURGICAL REGISTER

President’s Message

Hi Everyone,

I would like to take a moment and introduce myself. My name is Christopher Lee, CST, and I had the honor of being elected your president at our last convention in March. I am excited about having the chance to serve in this capacity and am looking forward to working with a great group of people on our Board this year and making this an even better organization for all of us. I was at a local hospital recently, talking to some of the staff about membership and upcoming events, and wound up having a conversation with a recent graduate who asked me "Where does my membership dues go besides getting a magazine each month?". This question got me to thinking about all the things that our membership dues pay for both individually and as a profession.

In addition to being 90% tax-deductible as a business expense, our dues help publish the aforementioned magazine, which does have printing costs including paper, ink, computer graphics software, and an editor to ensure that it has the content and look we expect from our professional journal. Our membership dues also pay for a fantastic updated website (if you haven’t checked it out lately, you really should.) which puts most of the information we as members would need at the click of a mouse. They ensure that there is someone on the other end of the phone when we call our national organization with a question or concern, and also pay for the computers and software that maintain our CEUs.

Our dues pay for marketing materials, brochures and pamphlets that both state and national organizations use to promote our profession. These materials are also available to any member who requests them. They provide continuing education opportunities for our members by helping plan and prepare forums, workshops and our national conference. They ensure our representation as a profession to other organizations such as AORN and the American College of Surgeons and enable us to participate in national patient safety initiatives such as the National Council on PeriOperative Safety.

Our dues help pay legislative expenses not only in Tennessee, but also in many other states that are in various stages of the legislative process. The laws that are passed as a result serve to protect our patients as well as define and protect our profession. They can serve as a guide for our future legislative efforts just as ours have been a model for others.

And our membership dues also serve to develop our greatest resource: our students. In addition to the Core Curriculum for Surgical Technology, the definitive guide to Surgical Technology curriculums for all CAAHEP programs, our dues have helped write, edit, and publish the only Surgical Technology Textbook written for Surgical Technologists BY Surgical Technologists. They have helped produce videos, study guides, CDs and other instructional materials used in classrooms across the country. Through AST’s support of the Foundation for Surgical Technology, our dues serve to "pay it forward" by funding scholarships and awards that are given to not only students, but instructors continuing their education as well as monies for several mission trips around the world. Our state organization also uses dues to help fund scholarships that are awarded exclusively to Tennessee students. Dues help offset the costs of students attending our National Conference. Enabling hundreds of students to experience the excitement of being around fellow practitioners and fostering future leaders to one day take up the mantle of responsibility and ensure our continued success.

So in closing, I suppose my response to the aforementioned question would be "your membership dues are everywhere, you just have to know where to look".

2007 TNAST Convention A Big Success!

Donna Henderson, CST/CFA

Also representing Tennessee as a delegate will be Donna Henderson, Past National President and Chuck Lane current AST Board Member.The evaluations were positive. Everyone enjoyed the flow of the meeting and had time to network with fellow surgical technologists. Once again another successful meeting with lots of membership teamwork!!!

Pardon Me Boys…Is that the Chattanooga Choo Choo….

The 2008 TNAST Annual Convention will be held in Chattanooga, TN at the downtown Marriott Friday February 29-March 1. The full service hotel is located in the heart of downtown Chattanooga and offers a rate of $119 plus tax and occupancy. Overnight guests and daily guests will be able to park for $6.00 per day. The event will offer a large variety of CEU’s for you to choose from with 16 available for members in attendance.

Registration includes lunches, breaks, exhibitors and door prizes!! Keep the date open and look for registration information on the TNAST Web site by September 2007.

"See you at the Station!"

Chuck Lane, CST, BSOM

Last years legislation had us running an uphill battle! As a state assembly we had to abandon our proactive efforts and defend the law that went into place June 2006.

The TNAST Board of Directors and AST hired Tracy O’ Neill for another year. The strategy for this year was for us to come into session and add the scope of practice and put polish on the grandfather part of the law in place. Ben Price, AST Government and Public Affairs representative and Tracy O Neill worked with the Tennessee Board of Regents to put together wording that best reflected a generalized scope of practice. The Tennessee Board of Regents agreed to take the lead this year with Tracy doing the foot work on the bills. TNAST grassroots members are known to the Tennessee House of Representatives and Senators. This year our help was not needed due to the previous year’s reputation and diligence. It is with pleasure that we announce to you that both of our bills passed in the house and senate this past week. We are waiting on notification that the Governor has signed them into law!

The operator watches through a stereoscopic viewer, which provides depth perception, and can glance at a large MRI picture on a nearby computer screen. A doctor can even hear the robot work with microphones located near the surgical instruments. A touch-screen allows a 3-D graphic picture of the arms to be manipulated in any direction."The goal of this is to make difficult surgeries easier or impossible surgeries possible," robotics engineer Alex Greer said. Sutherland and his team will begin clinical testing of the machine for Canadian health regulators in the coming weeks.

Chiari malformations (CMs) are structural defects in the cerebellum, that part of the brain that controls your balance. Normally the cerebellum and parts of the brainstem sit in an indented space at the lower end of the skull, above the foramen magnum (this is a funnel-like opening to the spinal canal). When any part of the cerebellum is found to be located below the foramen magnum, this is called a Chiari malformation. Sometimes CMs can develop when the bony space is smaller than normal, causing the cerebellum and brainstem to be pushed downward into the foramen magnum and into the upper spinal canal. The resulting pressure placed on the cerebellum and brainstem may affect functions that are controlled by these areas and block the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CFS), the clear fluid that surrounds and cushions the brain and spinal cord, to and from the brain.

by a myelomeningocele (this is a form of spina bifida that occurs when the spinal canal and backbone do not close before birth, causing the spinal cord and its protective membrane to protrude through a sac-like opening in the back. Partial or complete paralysis of the area below the spinal opening is a usually result of the myelomeningocele. The term Arnold-Chiari malformation (named after two pioneering researchers) is specific to Type II malformations. Type III is the most serious form of CM. Both the cerebellum and brainstem protrude or herniate, through the foramen magnum into the spinal cord. A portion of the brain’s 4^th ventricle, the cavity that connects the upper parts or the brain and circulates CSF, may also protrude through the hole. Type III causes severe neurological defects. Type IV involves an incomplete or underdeveloped cerebellum

Many people with CMs have no symptoms and their malformations are only discovered during the course of diagnosis or treatment for other disorders. The doctor can perform a physical exam by checking patient’s memory, touch, reflexes, and sensation, motor skills (functions controlled by the spinal cord) and balance (a function controlled by the cerebellum). Regular x-rays, CT scan, and MRI are also used.

Some CMs are asymptomatic and do not interfere with a person’s activities of daily living. In other cases, medications may ease certain symptoms, such as pain. Surgery is the only treatment available to correct functional disturbances or halt the progression of damage to the central nervous system. Most patients who have surgery see a reduction in their symptoms and/or prolonged periods of stability. A posterior fossa decompression surgery is performed on adult CM patients to create more space for the cerebellum and to relieve pressure on the spinal column. This surgery involves making an incision at the back of the head and removing a small portion of the bottom of the skull and sometimes including the upper cervical laminectomy. The surgeon may then make an incision in the dura (the covering of the brain) to examine the brain and spinal cord. Additional tissue of the surgeon’s choice may be added the dura to create more space for the flow of CSF.