Why do some surgeries take so long (like upwards of 24 hours)? What exactly are they doing?
In: Biology
Some things in surgery take a very long time
Removal of complex tumors, especially when they’re close to or growing into important things you don’t want to hurt. In neurosurgery for example you may need to take a tumor that’s been growing for 10 years off the brainstem and a bunch of nerves that are like 2mm thick wet spaghetti. And if you injure them the patient can’t smile, swallow, see, or talk. And they may be paralyzed or just not wake up. You can’t rush that, you have to work millimeter by millimeter
Reconstruction, like if you take someone’s face off,
you need to replace it with something that has good blood supply and connecting that and sewing it in takes a long time
Transplants can take a long time for the same reason
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