Vision is an automatic act, it keeps us aware of our environment to react before a danger or an opportunity. When we want to get more information, we concentrate our minds and our eyes over an object or situation, in a more conscious and active way. After analyzing an
A 70-year-old male had a diagnosis of bladder cancer. One month before, he presented with fever and chills after chemotherapy, coincident with neutropenia and thrombocytopenia. A chest x-ray showed a basal right image with doubt about a condensation. He started with antibiotics and all the symptoms resolved.
Continue reading Thinking Aloud: when reasoning calls for action
Many clinical decisions are based nowdays in a radiological report. Radiologist have a difficult task when they have to search for metastases in a patient with a disseminated tumor. The most common errors are satisfaction of search (after you find something you don´t look for more) or “tunnel vision” (an incomplete study of the image).
How many lesions you see in this video, quite similar to the radiologist environment?
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Tunnel vision is a cognitive bias associated to radiology when a finding preclude a total observation of the visual field missing an important piece of information. A similar situation could happen when a surgeon focused his or her intervention over a segment without a complete physical or functional review of the anatomical area involved.
Two narrative examples will help to understand this concept.. Continue reading Tunnel vision in surgery: looking for anatomy