In a scene from The Blacklist, one of the characters uses a lighter on a wound to “cauterize” it. It looks painful but works. What exactly is it and is it actually done in medical scenarios?
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Cauterizing is essentially using heat to burn a wound closed. It definitely doesn’t heal the wound, but it *does* make it so you won’t bleed to death through it. Of course, now you have a burn wound to take care of on top of whatever damage was caused by the injury, but at least you’re not leaking.
There are better ways to stop bleeding but in some situations you can burn a wound to make it stop bleeding. If it’s your only option, that sucks, but it’s still better than bleeding out.
Yes, it is done in some acute scenarios (example: during surgeries, sometimes removal of tissue like moles or skin tags). As others have said, it’s to close off parts of tissue or remove tissue so they don’t bleed out or lose fluids.
An alternative to Cauterizarion is to use a ‘stiptic powder’, it also stops bleeding on smaller wounds.
The heat doesn’t heal you, it just stops you from actively bleeding out. And yes it really is done during surgical procedures to stop bleeding.