In a scene from The Blacklist, one of the characters uses a lighter on a wound to ācauterizeā it. It looks painful but works. What exactly is it and is it actually done in medical scenarios?
In: 97
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.
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.
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.
There are better ways to stop bleeding but in some situations you can burn a wound to make it stop bleeding. If itās your only option, that sucks, but itās still better than bleeding out.
An alternative to Cauterizarion is to use a ‘stiptic powder’, it also stops bleeding on smaller wounds.
Cauterising doesnāt heal wounds it just burns it so it stops bleeding, in general itās a bad idea since you are actually creating more injuries but in some edge scenarios itās neccesary so you donāt die from blood loss
Also a lighter wonāt ācauterizeā a wound. You typically use metal to do that. Open flames cause burns, metal sears the wound and closes it.
Yeah, sorta. It’ll stop the bleeding, but then you’ve just got a burn wound to take care of and other shit to. If you’re talking about the ‘tv’ way, where they use a lighter, a hot knife, or a damn flare on the wound, it *could* work; but realistically? Practically?
Nah. Unless you’re bleeding from a major artery or vein, you really shouldn’t attempt it. Put pressure on that damn thing, and try to restrict it with a tourniquet if it’s a deep red and bleeding like crazy.
It’s used in some surgeries if I remember correctly, to either stop bleeding, or to seal the skin back up? ( not sure )
I’m no doctor, or med student; I’m just a nerd. Correct me if I’m wrong tho.
As an old pipe welder who on occasion has come into contact with red hot metal. It is painful. The worst is when you have your head turned sideways an a piece of slag pops off and lands in your ear. You hear this sizzle then the pain hits.
We use cautery all the time in surgery. It is, however, a highly specialized device. Using a lighter as cautery is a myth.
The idea is to burn a bleeding blood vessel shut. This stops bleeding of minor vessels easily. Larger vessels usually require different methods to close.
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