Eli5 why is it that if I cut myself with a knife I bleed like crazy, but when a surgeon cuts into a chest, removes the ribs to perform a major surgery you don’t see all that much blood comparatively?

Question

Eli5 why is it that if I cut myself with a knife I bleed like crazy, but when a surgeon cuts into a chest, removes the ribs to perform a major surgery you don’t see all that much blood comparatively?

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Answer 1

I’m not a surgeon or a doctor but I work with one. I work with an ENT surgeon, and I assist her with procedures in office. For excisions, she injects a numbing medication with epinephrine, which helps to slow or minimize bleeding in that local area. I suction or blot any active bleeding, she cauterizes active blood vessels. Similar is done with many surgeries in the OR.