What to Expect when Observing a Surgery for First Timers
While watching a surgery, you might feel anxious, nervous, and maybe even excited. Many people have different experiences from observing a surgery, but some common points will happen most of the time.
First, when you enter the surgical ward, you are given a pair of scrubs and a jacket. After wearing these scrubs, you must wear a mask to cover your nose and eyes, a surgical cap, and surgical shoe covers. The regulation on whether you should wear a face shield if you wear glasses varies, but most hospitals mandate that you wear one. After being prepared, a nurse will guide you to the correct operating room (OR) where the surgery will happen. There are two kinds of surgeries: open surgery and laparoscopic surgery.
Laparoscopic surgery allows a surgeon to access the inside of the abdomen, thoracic area(chest), or pelvis without making large incisions in the skin. An incision is a surgical cut made by the surgeon. A surgeon does laparoscopic surgery using a robot. The benefit of performing surgery with a DaVinci robot is that the surgeon has a 3-dimensional view of the internal structures and organs. This view helps the surgeon make precise cuts without causing any damage to any nearby tissues. On the other hand, open surgery involves large incisions, which gives the surgeon a complete view of the structures or organs. While open surgery is the more traditional way of doing surgery, it is less accurate than laparoscopic surgery.
You must wash your hands or wear gloves to touch things in the OR. In the OR, a monitor shows the viewers what the surgeon sees. What is on the monitor is not everything. In my experience, the robot gives the surgeon a complete view of the structures and organs. The Davinci robot uses two arms to perform this procedure. The first arm has a hook on the end, which allows the surgeon to cut tissues. The second arm has forceps. This arm allows the surgeon to cauterize any minor bleed, and this helps the surgeon grip tissues.
There was one anesthesiologist, two surgical nurses, and one head surgeon. Apart from the head surgeon, who uses the robot, two surgical nurses assist the head surgeon in performing this procedure. When I watched this surgical procedure, I was allowed to look into the machine and see the inside of the human body from the surgeon's perspective.
Before the surgery begins, the surgeon does a "time out" to ensure everything is good. When the "time out" is done, the surgeon explains the procedure and gives a small pep talk. The nurses then drape the patient and sanitize the incision sites. For the first part of the radical prostatectomy, the surgeon manually makes incisions and then inserts the end of the robot's arms into each incision site. For a radical prostatectomy, the surgeon makes five incisions. The length of each incision is 1 to 5 centimeters (cm), and there are two incisions on the left and right sides of the abdomen. These incisions are where the ends of the robot's arms will go into. The ends of the robot's arms are hollow, metallic, cylindrical tubes. The surgeon then inserts the long metal arms into the incisions. These arms do what the surgeon wants to do. The machine provides the surgeon with a 360-degree view of the inside of the patient. The surgeon uses the hook to remove any fat in his way to reach the prostate for one hour. When I saw the inside of the human body on the monitor, I couldn't understand or identify any structure though I had the anatomy of a prostate in front of me. The surgery was fascinating, and the head surgeon told me what he was doing and identified anatomical structures. After the surgeon found the prostate gland, he tried to cut as much of the prostate gland as he could without cutting into the bladder. To extract the prostate gland, the surgeon had to cut through the urethra, the right seminal vesicle, and the left seminal vesicle. After cutting around the prostate gland, the surgeon stitches both ends of the urethra together and uses a Foley catheter to drain urine. After suturing the urethra together, the surgeon removed the lymph nodes surrounding the area because lymph nodes allow cancer to travel to a different region. The surgeon used the two arms to put the extracted prostate gland into a small plastic bag. The surgeon manually created an incision above the belly button to remove the bag from inside the patient. The surgeon stitched all of the incisions closed and examined the prostate gland. The surgeon allowed me to wear gloves and touch and hold the prostate.
Some important things you should take away from this description.
- Anatomy on paper is very different from actual human anatomy. So learn the anatomy.
- Try to talk to the surgeon before or during the surgery.
- Talking to people in the OR is something that you should do.
- Learn the surgical procedures before the surgery begins.
- Try to research the surgery so that you know something.
- Ask questions
Looking back at the experience, I have learned a lot. The surgery was fascinating and very informative. I feel more motivated to become a doctor.
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Anatomy of the Prostate |
If you have any doubts on how this procedure is performed, please use the link provided below.
If you have seen any surgery, please comment below. I look forward to reading your stories.
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