I know theres things like blood transfusions but how do you get cut wide open and not just bleed out completely from the incisions in surgery.
In: Biology
There is general anesthesia where many of the bodies functions are slowed or stopped while the patient is “under”.
The analogy to this is shutting the car engine off before popping hood. Otherwise the mechanic is trying to repair the car while it is running, and that is considerably more difficult – leaking fluids, gouts of fire, extreme swings in temperature and pressure that increase the difficulty of the work and may break the engine while you have it partially apart even as it is running.
So the human body functions are slowed, the surgeon does their work, and then human body is restarted.
If they used a knife, there would be lots of bleeding, but they usually don’t. They essentially burn their way through tissue with something nicknamed a “[Bovie](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrosurgery)” so most vessels they pass through are burned closed as quickly as they are cut. If they hit a big vessel, they can tie it off with a string. If they have a lot of bleeding from small vessels, they can put down a cloth that is soaked in the natural compounds which promote clotting and stop bleeding. Many surgeries involve very little blood loss.
Interestingly, the burning flesh needs to be vacuumed away from the surgical area because it can increase risk of cancer if you breathe too much of it.
Depends where the surgeons are working. If it’s on an arm or a leg then a tourniquet can be used to temporarily stop the blood supply to the limb.
Generally though the ‘cut wide open’ thing is avoided wherever possible. “Keyhole” surgery has been one of the biggest advances of the last 30-ish years.
The surgeons know exactly where they are cutting as to not sever arteries and large veins. There will obviously be capillary bleeding but they try to minimize it and can also use a surgical tool that cauterizes(burns) as it cuts. I think they’re called harmonic scalpels or electro-cautery scalpels.
that literally the whole thing bout training a surgeon along with the medicine training they have as doctors the whole reason for being trained as a surgeon is to be able to perform these operations without killing your patient.
more often than not they’ll make very sure ot control blood flow to the area they are working on by clamping up major blood vessels that need to be opened and making sure the patient remanis hemostable.
ends up being a situation of ” the difference between a surgeon and butcher is precision”
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