(NSFW) As a surgeon or a visitor could you do or watch this? (Details inside)

I could, yes. Also, for a class once we visited some cadavers. Didn’t faze me a bit.

@osoraro took me to his cadaver lab when he was in med school. He had me squeeze some kidneys and livers. I checked for sinks first, but ultimately did not need to barf afterwards.

He’s a mean doctor!

Thank goodness, I thought this was part of the vivisection question.

Cardiologists and Thoracic surgeons know they have to get through the ribs to fix things. So while it may look uncomfortable to do, it is necessary to save lives. That takes the ick/squirm factor out of it.

I often watch surgery on Youtube. Yes, it can shock at times but it is fascinating and makes you admire doctors even more!

@zenvelo : )

Yes. I suck. I’ve also done the rib spreading thing.

About fifteen years ago – maybe more – I couldn’t sleep one night, went to the living room and watched a fantastic documentary on PBS on the complete process – graphically filmed – of a knee replacement. What hooked me was when they started demonstrating the surgical tools involved, the bone saws and planes used to shape the ends of the fibia and tibia so that the replacement metal parts can be securely attached and screwed in place, and they referred to it as (maybe not in so many words) “medical carpentry”. After all, what they were doing was a form of carpentry: sawing bones to exact lengths (so the resulting leg would be the right length and bend in exactly the right place) and fitting a precision metal part onto the two bone ends, which had to be shaped precisely to make a tight fit in the joint ends, and then screwing the whole thing together. They showed pretty much the entire operation, with particular demonstration of the specialized tools developed for maximum efficiency and patient / doctor safety. (You don’t want to be cutting a leg bone with a Fien saw or Skilsaw!)

Fascinating stuff. Yeah, I could watch a chest being cracked open.

I’ve done some rib spreading.

giggity.

lol

There’s not much I haven’t done to the human body. Living or corpses. It’s very amusing to have corpses as dolls rigged on pulley systems.

Care for a cup of tea?