Based in Texas USA Austin Urogynecology is a practice owned by Dr Shashoua, a surgeon who has been on the forefront of advancements in the medical and surgical treatment of prolapse and incontinence in women.
Austin Urogynecology were looking for an agency that could create original medical illustrations. The purpose to add medical visuals to their company website as a helpful guide to explain anatomy and various medical conditions and ones that could also be used as part of printed patient education materials. The subject content was prolapse and incontinence in women.
Prolapse is a condition in which one or more of the pelvic organs drop out of their usual anatomical position and the pelvic organs move downwards bulging into or out of the vagina. The pelvic organs consist of the uterus, bowel and bladder and any of these organs can be involved in the prolapse.
The conditions to be illustrated were cystocele which is specifically a dropping or bulging of the bladder into the vagina. Rectocele which occurs when the wall between a woman’s rectum and vagina weaken allowing the rectum to drop into the vagina. The brief also included the need for illustrations of a rectocele and cystocele together and the normal anatomy of the pelvic floor and the pelvic floor shown with pelvic descent.
The resulting illustrations were successful because we used the digital medium to succinctly create the female form as the same background throughout all six of the illustrations. This meant that the differences between the normal anatomy and the anatomy with the prolapse stood out and to make obvious which parts of the anatomy had prolapsed. To view the illustrations in context visit the Austin Urogynecology website.
Using medical illustrations as helpful visuals such as these gives the patient more of a chance to understand what is involved with the condition, why it has happened and the surgical process that is going to take place to fix it. Through knowledge and a better understanding of the whole process helps put patients at ease before surgery.
