Dr Vija Sodera is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, with extensive experience in emergency surgery and skin surgery. In addition to his new Minor Surgery series, he has authored three other textbooks, with sales of over 30,000 and which have been translated into Italian, Japanese and Indonesian, with a special Indian edition. All his books are extensively illustrated with his own illustrations and photographs. His acclaimed book Skin Surgery in General Practice and his Skin Tumour diagnostic poster are found in most general practices in the UK. He has also published numerous articles on minor surgery in primary care, and on minor injuries. He is currently working on a new Diagnostic Atlas on Minor Injuries.
Medical publications by Dr Vija Sodera
Having always had a special love of animals, Dr Sodera is an accomplished wildlife artist, and has exhibited many of his paintings.
A number of his paintings are featured in his book One Small Speck to Man ~ the evolution myth. The two paintings shown below have medical themes.
KREB’S BI-CYCLE
This painting is based on the two biochemical cycles described by Professor Kreb. His famous ‘Kreb’s cycle’ (also known by the catchy name ‘the tricarboxylic acid cycle’) deals with the metabolism of glucose to produce the energy bonds in adenosine triphosphate (ATP). The less well-known ‘Kreb’s urea cycle’ deals with the metabolism of ammonia waste into urea. Dr Sodera was in a biochemistry lecture when he thought about linking the two cycles into the framework of a bicycle. With the ‘Kreb’s cycle’ and the ‘Kreb’s urea cycle’ making up the front and back wheels respectively, the painting Kreb’s Bi-cycle was born. To complete the picture, the Bi-cycle stands inside an abstract mitochondrion, which is where Kreb’s cycle does its thing.
SPACE CLIP
Dr Sodera painted the ‘Space Clip’ during his time doing neurosurgery. An aneurysm is an abnormal ballooning of a blood vessel. This results in a weakened arterial wall, which then has an increased risk of rupture. A particular type of bleeding known as ‘subarachnoid haemorrhage’ occurs following the rupture of an arterial aneurysm in the base of the brain. The bleeding can be controlled by opening up the skull and placing a tiny stainless steel clip onto the aneurysm. In the painting, the tree-like structure represents the arterial supply to the head and neck, and a rupture of an aneurysm of the middle cerebral artery is depicted. The spaceship-like shape is really a modified clothes peg, representing the aneurysm clip flying off to stop the bleeding.
He also has a special interest in animal biology and has dissected, photographed and filmed numerous anatomical studies including fish; amphibians; lizards, snakes and crocodile; birds including emu; cat, badger, capybara, sheep, cow, zebra, dolphin and giraffe.
Many of his dissections are featured in his extensively illustrated book One Small Speck to Man ~ the evolution myth.
