ELI5- How do surgeons sew up after an operation without leaving air in the body?
In: 46
You’re getting some good answers but also some quite weird ones – let’s break it down.
Tldr – there’s gas in there, its not really a problem aside from sometimes causing pain, and goes away on its own pretty fast.
Air within the abdomen is going to happen with any abdo surgery, and we dont really do all that much to avoid it, aside from giving it a little time to get out after a keyhole surgery before removing the access ports (like a few seconds, it doesn’t take long). There will be gas left behind. Drains are normally used to remove fluid not gas (so they’re generally at the bottom of the abdo where fluid would pool).
Pneumoperitoneum (air in the abdominal cavity) is normal after surgery, and absorbs over a few days (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9266640/ reference for this). The main consequence is normally shoulder tip pain caused by gas irritation of the diaphragm (i had this after my c section, bloody hell it hurt, luckily doesn’t last long).
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