Recently featured speculum

A year-old female presents to your busy emergency department with a complaint of malodorous vaginal discharge for 2 days. She has recently started dating a new partner and is concerned about having contracted a sexually transmitted infection. She is afebrile and hemodynamically stable with a negative pregnancy test. What is your next step in the workup and management of this patient? Classical medical teaching deems the pelvic exam a necessary component of the emergent evaluation for female patients presenting with a genitourinary or abdominal complaint. But the utility of the pelvic exam as a diagnostic tool has been called into question for being both inaccurate and poorly reproducible.

We'd like to understand how you use our websites in order to improve them. Register your interest. The purposes of this study were to introduce a new vaginal speculum, describe the technique of using the new speculum in identifying and measuring the severity of pelvic organ prolapse POP , and present results of a pilot study comparing the new speculum to the conventional instruments used in performing POP quantification POPQ. The new speculum has retractable upper and lower blades marked in centimeters. POPQ was performed with one instrument using the new speculum and multiple instruments performing the conventional technique. Twenty-two patients underwent POPQ—11 using the new speculum and 11 using conventional instruments. The duration of the procedure and the level of discomfort were assessed.

This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables. I present herewith a photograph of a vaginal speculum which I have recently invented.

The Photon Speculum is reportedly the first-ever self-illuminating eye speculum, and allows surgeons to see greater details for improved surgical outcomes. Like what you read? Plus, get special offers and more delivered to your inbox.