Live - Operation

[VeritasVincit]

Last night on Ch5; a 2 hour live broadcast of a surgeon doing open-heart surgery. Really live; cameras all round and one attached to the surgeon's glasses, for close-ups. Everything from opening the chest to the final stitching up.
The concentration and the skill of the surgeon was fantastic and what they do was a revelation. Using an electric saw for the breastbone, and using twisted wire to hold the bone together at the end was a surprise, compared to the ultra-fine work in the heart itself.
I did A level biology, but nothing inside the chest looked anything like the theory that I learned.
There’s another tonight and again on Thursday, both late on.
But don’t watch if you are squeamish.

[carcinogen]

I always had trouble with the Bread Basket.

[tennisman]

As bad knee sufferer, watched the knee replacement one with much interest.

Fascinating.

The term they used, knee re-build, is actually better than replacement as only certain bits get replaced.

I wasn't clear on what they do with the patella but now, I know - they push it to one side, bringing it back across at the end, in order to get at the bone ends so that they can attach the new pieces and insert the new cartilage mixture buffering in between.

Fascinating how the scrub nurse had to count every box of instruments to confirm that the surgeon had not left any of them within the joint before he closed it up - Now where' s that biro I was using........whoops!

All the while, the patient was awake due to the use of an epidural.

[JimmyDee]

They did this in the 60s, as I recall. "Your Life In Their Hands" it was called.
The thing I remember was how messy the body looks when you cut it open compared to the drawings in Biology text-books, where the different bits are all laid out neatly for inspection

[tennisman]

They did this in the 60s, as I recall. "Your Life In Their Hands" it was called.
The thing I remember was how messy the body looks when you cut it open compared to the drawings in Biology text-books, where the different bits are all laid out neatly for inspection

I watched it as a kid.