Amazing Surgery

This week was very exciting! I got to see a full knee replacement surgery on an elderly woman. At first I was supposed to watch a spinal fusion but was then told to watch a knee replacement surgery because I apparently didn't have some sort of permission, it was weird but I was okay with it at the end because I saw a knee surgery. To some, surgery and blood in general can be gross but I didn't mind it because of what was actually going on. After the doctors draped the patient and organized the room, it was time to proceed with the procedure. As the orthopedic surgeon was opening the knee, I could smell the scent of burning flesh because an assistant was cauterizing to prevent bleeding. I was a bit uncomfortable with this but soon got used to it, sounds weird. The entire knee was then exposed and I could see the muscles and bones from a distance, which was super cool!! They then cut the fibia and tibia end with a saw. This saw looks like one you'd get at Home Depot but they all work the same with the same purpose. After sawing, the surgeon used pieces of metal fitting piece to determine the size of joints the patient will need. Once the piece was determined, an assistant would go out and grab the correct sizes for the permanent joints. The joints were then glued to the bones and I got to keep a piece of glue. This glue has an exothermic reaction to solidify and so as it hardened it got warmer which was cool. Once the knee cap and joints are properly set, the orthopedic surgeon's job is done and he then scrubs out while his assistants close the knee up. Overall, this was an eye opening experience because I saw first hand how important and effective medical devices and prothesis are, especially from a biomedical engineering perspective.