Surgical Observations

I was fortunate enough to spend an entire day watching surgery. I was afraid I would get nauseous or dizzy, but I did just fine. I think it helped that I watched a couple videos ahead of time.

The first surgery was an arthroscopic medial meniscus repair. It was a fairly quick surgery and I could see almost everything on the screen overhead. It's amazing what you can do when guided by a camera!

The next surgery was an total hip replacement, anterior approach. It was a little harder to see as much with this one because the surgeon and PA had to be right up close and the view was sometimes blocked. They used X-ray to check how deep they were in the intramedulary canal of the femur so that was interesting. I got to see them cut off the femoral head and basically throw it on the table. It looked like a door knob!  The smell of the flesh burning as they used the cautery was awful! The rep for the joint replacement parts was there and giving the surgical technician a blow by blow of what to do as she assisted the surgeon with all the specialty  tools and parts. This was her first total hip and she did great. The anesthetist was great too. He explained exactly what medicaitons he was giving and how they affected which muscles. He also let me watch him intubate the patient.

Next was a carpal tunnel release, open approach. This was super quick. The surgeon told me each layer he was cutting through and let me look into the opening at the median nerve.

Next was a total knee replacement. This was probably the messiest. I had a pretty good view and got to see most of the cutting. The pounding in of the components is pretty traumatic. I can see why there is so much pain after a total knee. They used a series of reamers to get the hole deep and wide enough, again the rep talked the tech through exactly what to do. I saw the back of the patella that was removed and they let me play with the cement putty they use. It's heat activated and got very hot as it hardened in my hand.

The final surgery of the day was a total reverse shoulder. By this time the surgeon and PA were used to having me around. They asked a nurse to get me a stool and let me stand REALLY close. I could see right into the glenoid fossa and could see everything. I even got splashed with a little blood. The patient's femoral head was very large and mis-shapen but it wasn't an issue when they hollowed out the end for the ball to fit into. It was a very interesting surgery and was done in 40 minutes!