UNIMAS produces good humble doctors since 2000

I was invited to be  an "external" examiner for the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Final Year medical students End of Surgery Posting exam on 23-24 June 2016.  As they have one more month before the Final Professional Exam, they are not in top form, yet.  For most students it takes  some patience to draw the knowledge  from them but they will  be good once they qualify. What is important is their humble and steady manners, to indicate they will continue learning. I am sure this is contributed by their determination, the undivided dedication of a team of  surgical  lecturers: mostly experienced expatriates and a handful of young enthusiatic ones. Needless to say, Sarawakian patients are ever ready to share their stories for these eager young to-be doctors. We hope they will stay to work in Sarawak!

Fertility Care in Kuching

Recently, I was referred a case by Dr Chieng Hock Tiew, local fertility expert to do open harvesting of sperm from the epididymis and testes. In fact, I have known Dr Chieng Hock Tiew since school days. Subsequently, we collaborated and we were full time (literally full time working through midnight!) teaching at the local university in Kuching.  Dr Chieng has a preference of asking the urologist to look after the men.  Although most fertility centres can harvest their sperm by percutaneous techniques, open technique allows one to examine the epididymis and  to harvest plenty of material.  The epididymal tubules can be seen and the distended ones are aspirated with a needle. The material can often be looked at immediately to see whether they are any good motile sperm. Testicular material can also be harvested.  We have an anaesthetist in attendance to give sedation for patient comfort and safety. The procedure is done under local anaesthetic infiltration.  In my earlier days (20 years ago), I had often been asked to do epididymo-vasostomy.  Initially, I did this under magnification 4 times and subsequently with the help of a microsurgeon, as most urologists do not handle the microscope often enough. I append herein an information leaflet from Dr Chieng Hock Tiew’s clinic which I picked up on the way out.

Wound Osteomy Continence Education Program, Men's Health