by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Jun 7, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema, Undaunted Spirit Award
Nearly two decades ago, when I was the director of the Memorial Hermann Medical Center Lymphedema center, I met a young patient who was only about 10 years old at the time. Even as a child he was one of those inspiring, optimistic, “over-comers” who made a big...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 20, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
Yesterday I posted an article about a new study just published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders, which shows that the degradation of lymphatic anatomy happens early in venous disease and worsens as venous disease worsens. Check out...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 19, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
A new study just published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery: Venous and Lymphatic Disorders (Vol. 9, Issue 3, May 2021) shows that the degradation of lymphatic anatomy happens early in venous disease and worsens as venous disease worsens. Near-infrared fluorescence...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 16, 2021 | Fight the Good Fight, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
This is a healthy teenager who underwent podiatric surgery for a tarsal coalition 6 months ago. Sutures were removed a month later and two weeks after that, a small opening along the surgical incision began to drain copious amounts of “egg yolk” colored...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 25, 2020 | Fight the Good Fight, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
In 1998, when I initiated a lymphedema program within a busy wound center, I had no idea what I was doing. I had been running the Memorial Hermann Wound Center in the Texas Medical Center for eight years by then. Women with post-mastectomy lymphedema began to call...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Aug 20, 2020 | Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema, Uncategorized
For more than two decades I’ve had the opportunity to work with Dr. Eva Sevick and her team at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston on the development of real-time lymphatic imaging. In fact, above is a photo of me many years ago, with one of...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Apr 1, 2019 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
I read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking, and since then I have been paying more attention to my instinctive reaction to certain wounds. I saw a patient getting a compression bandage change (who was not my patient), and the first...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Dec 26, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
I was reflecting on my day in clinic yesterday in which there was an unusual amount of good news in terms of wounds improved or closed. Of course the patients with congestive heart failure and atrial fibrillation were desaturating and short of breath – but they did...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 15, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
This is an 80 year old man with severe bilateral lower extremity lymphedema. I hospitalized him the day I took these photos. He had copious amounts of neon green drainage and increasing erythema of his legs, but what really precipitated hospital admission was his...
by Caroline Fife, M.D. | Nov 12, 2018 | Fight the Good Fight, Health Information Technology and Wound Care, Lymphatic Imaging & Lymphedema
I’ve been thinking a lot about lymphedema due to venous disease vs. other types of lymphedema. I think the differences are worth pondering. We see the impact of venous disease so often that it is a bit like living in a war zone – after a while the abnormal becomes...
