Hey Guys! So this last week, I’ve
spent a lot of time in the operating room, but I’ve also been learning a lot
outside the OR. Since I’m conducting research on sutures, Dr. Vegunta and his PAs
have been giving me a crash course on how to actually use them.
First, I
learned how to tie knots with sutures, which can become particularly
frustrating, but after a while, tying knots almost becomes second nature. And
it’s very necessary that knot-tying is easy for a surgeon. For example, Dr.
Vegunta and his colleague, Dr. Greenfeld, had to tie sutures in the thoracic cavity while the lungs were expanding and contracting, while the heart was
beating, and while there was water and blood coating their gloves. They had been
working on the same patient for about 6 hours. Speaking of working in
undesirable conditions, Dr. Vegunta had to return to the OR in the middle of
the night to perform on a patient who needed immediate attention, and then he came
back in the morning as he does every day. Surgeons can have very tiresome jobs,
to say the least.
Anyways,
after learning how to tie knots, I started learning how to suture with needles.
To close an incision, you need forceps, a needle holder, and, of course, a
suture with a needle at the end. Here are some pictures of the needle holder
and the suture’s needle:
As you can see, there are notches on the handle, so the user
can click the needle holder into place, and it will hold the suture’s needle
until the user pulls it back open. The suture I used in this picture was not
barbed, as I was practicing knots as well, and barbed sutures do not require
knows. However, my research is focused on laparoscopic techniques, so suturing
will be fairly different when performing anastomoses in the laparoscopic
simulators. For instance, the tools are much longer, since they are designed to
be inserted into the abdomen, and you must look at a screen to see what you are
working on. Here’s what the simulator and its tools look like:
.JPG)
If you've got any questions, feel free to leave them in the
comments!
That is so cool! How does the suturing process differ laparoscopicly versus regularly?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the explanation and the pictures to explain your knot tying and suturing. I hope you are able to continue with more information on the laparoscopic procedures. These are very interesting and something I know very little about.
ReplyDeletethis was a very cool post, roshan. Speaking from experience these skills will also come in handy around the house. My wife is a doctor and learned a little bit of tutoring in med school during her surgery rotation. Now she's the one who is called on to fix all the special projects come up involving knots and such.
ReplyDelete