Even the miracle machines of modern technology are no match for the wave of obesity rolling across America.
Hospitals are finding that an increasing number of patients are simply too big to fit into their MRI machines. According to this story in the San Francisco Chronicle:
It’s a problem doctors say they see as frequently as once a month as the number of people with morbid obesity climbs in the United States: A patient complains of abdominal pain. A CT scan or MRI could pinpoint the problem, but the patient is too heavy or too large for the machine to handle.
“In many ways, we have to regress to the old days and rely on physical findings, some of which are very subtle,” said Dr. John Husted, a gastric bypass surgeon with Laparoscopic Associates of San Francisco.
The story cites cases of patients essentially going untreated as a result.
Having endured my fair share of MRIs and having found each one excruciatingly claustrophobic, I will count myself lucky should there be a next time … given the alternative.
