I believe they use many hemastats to clamp down on veins, arteries to stop blood from going through certain areas that are opened up. They would also cut in a way to do the least amount of damage to an area so they don’t snip those parts. Then it’s just blood vessels leaking and should be a bit more manageable. For long surgeries they probably have some blood bags used to add more blood back to you
The patient’s blood may be captured and recycled/ blood may be transfused.
People having open heart surgery are put on bypass and have their blood recirculated, and oxyginated by a nurse/perfusionist. For example, here’s an accurate description of what takes place during a CABG, (coronary artery bypass graft) the most common type of heart surgery.
In traumatologic surgery they often operate on the limbs under ischemia, by interrupting the blood flow to the extremity. These surgeries are surreal in that patients don’t bleed at all.
One of the things anesthesia achieves is lowering blood pressure quite a bit. This also reduces bleeding drastically.
When bleeding starts during surgery, place your finger on the bleeding source. Use forceps to grab vessel, use Bovie to cauterize vessel by touching it to the back of the forceps. The electrical current runs through the forceps and sears the vessel.
The answer is that surgeons use tools that both cut and cauterize at the same time. And if they see a bleeder during surgery, they zap it with the cautery tool and it stops the bleeding. There is also hemostatic powder they can apply to stop bleeding.
And if the surgeon is working on a limb, they can apply an inflatable cuff to the limb (similar to a blood pressure cuff) that acts as a tourniquet and stops the flow of blood to the limb. They are allowed to use this device for an hour. One of the OR nurse’s job is to ensure that the hour time limit is not exceeded.
Also a suction device is used during surgery to collect the blood a patient is losing. It displays the amount of blood collected so everyone in the OR can see what the total is as the surgery proceeds. It’s called a Neptune. (The amount of blood is documented and the blood is discarded at the end of the procedure.) If it is going to be a very prolonged or complex surgery (or for trauma, like a gunshot wound) then a machine called a cell saver might be used. The cell saver collects the patient’s red blood cells during the procedure and then returns them to the patient.
Every time before surgery the surgery team does a WHO Checklist where they double check things like consent and whether they have all the equipment they need to do the surgery
They also assess likely blood loss and will implement countermeasures to minimise it
Using tourniquets (limbs only) while they can only be used for 2 hours max, this prevents blood loss almost entirely to any limb surgery
Soldering iron scalpels, essentially it’s a heated metal knife so that when you cut, it also cauterises the flesh. Burnt flesh doesn’t bleed
Clamping, when it comes to surgery involving the major vessels they can physically clamp the vessels down with large crocodile clips
Blood recycling machines, these take the blood suctioned up from the surgical site and puts it in a machine that separates out the RBC’s remixes it with saline and it’s able to be infused back into the patient. This reduces the need for donated blood
A very simple summary would be that
We donate blood so that operations can be performed.
They loose some blood, but much is recaptured and pumped back in, as well as key veins or arteries are avoided while others are tapped off so they dont leak.
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Well, the large collection of doctors and nurses and all their fancy equipment make sure you don’t.
Pretty sure they clamp any major arteries and medication for the bleeding.
I believe they use many hemastats to clamp down on veins, arteries to stop blood from going through certain areas that are opened up. They would also cut in a way to do the least amount of damage to an area so they don’t snip those parts. Then it’s just blood vessels leaking and should be a bit more manageable. For long surgeries they probably have some blood bags used to add more blood back to you
They clamp down blood vessels that are cut/damaged to prevent extensive blood loss and they give you blood infusions to replace the lost blood.
During surgery they sometimes use like multiple of those big blood bags
There are lots of reasons that patients don’t bleed out (a non-comprehensive list):
Equipment, the anesthesia, and precise cuts that avoid arteries. Lots of things go into making sure you survive surgery.
When bleeding starts during surgery, place your finger on the bleeding source. Use forceps to grab vessel, use Bovie to cauterize vessel by touching it to the back of the forceps. The electrical current runs through the forceps and sears the vessel.
Surgery evolved a lot over the years; it’s not butchery anymore.
Surgeons make sure to not cut major arteries, they will work their way around it if possible.
if they do have to cut arteries, they will clamp them to prevent blood loss and/or they will also cauterize (burn) things to mitigate bleeding
I think there are also medication that will help mitigate bleeding in major surgeries.
The answer is that surgeons use tools that both cut and cauterize at the same time. And if they see a bleeder during surgery, they zap it with the cautery tool and it stops the bleeding. There is also hemostatic powder they can apply to stop bleeding.
And if the surgeon is working on a limb, they can apply an inflatable cuff to the limb (similar to a blood pressure cuff) that acts as a tourniquet and stops the flow of blood to the limb. They are allowed to use this device for an hour. One of the OR nurse’s job is to ensure that the hour time limit is not exceeded.
Also a suction device is used during surgery to collect the blood a patient is losing. It displays the amount of blood collected so everyone in the OR can see what the total is as the surgery proceeds. It’s called a Neptune. (The amount of blood is documented and the blood is discarded at the end of the procedure.) If it is going to be a very prolonged or complex surgery (or for trauma, like a gunshot wound) then a machine called a cell saver might be used. The cell saver collects the patient’s red blood cells during the procedure and then returns them to the patient.
Source: I worked in the OR for six months.
Every time before surgery the surgery team does a WHO Checklist where they double check things like consent and whether they have all the equipment they need to do the surgery
They also assess likely blood loss and will implement countermeasures to minimise it
Using tourniquets (limbs only) while they can only be used for 2 hours max, this prevents blood loss almost entirely to any limb surgery
Soldering iron scalpels, essentially it’s a heated metal knife so that when you cut, it also cauterises the flesh. Burnt flesh doesn’t bleed
Clamping, when it comes to surgery involving the major vessels they can physically clamp the vessels down with large crocodile clips
Blood recycling machines, these take the blood suctioned up from the surgical site and puts it in a machine that separates out the RBC’s remixes it with saline and it’s able to be infused back into the patient. This reduces the need for donated blood
A very simple summary would be that
We donate blood so that operations can be performed.
They loose some blood, but much is recaptured and pumped back in, as well as key veins or arteries are avoided while others are tapped off so they dont leak.