Engineering in surgical procedures

[Gas_mantle]

A bit off topic but I wondered if anyone else in the UK has been following the Channel 5 series showing operations done live? The first night showed open heart surgery to replace a defective valve and last night we saw complete knee joint replacement in about 90mins.

It's the knee operation that is probably of more interest to us engineers, absolutely mind blowing to see a surgeon replace a joint live on TV in pretty much the same way we would on an engine. It was amazing to see how he drilled into bone in order to locate a central pin and from that attach various jigs and templates in order the cut bones squarely and in the right position to accept a metal replacement.

The programme said that during the operation the surgeon had access to over 1000 different tools and templates, he more drills, taps, jigs, parallels, saws, hammers, chisels, pliers than most of us 😀

Not for the faint hearted but if you want to see a bowel tumour removed live on TV then C5 at 10pm 

[Stuart]

No thanks

Had one done last December  5 hour job on the table but the good news is that I have just been for the follow up and they got it all 25cm of the plumbing got removed in the process  and a 20 cm scar to prove it

But where would we be without the surgeons


Stuart

[bpudney]

I had a knee replacement in 2001, I watched the World Trade Centre disaster on the hospital TV.  Now 17 years later it still works a treat.  Thank you orthopedic surgeons!!
cheers
Bill

[ShopShoe]

I had some rather simple surgery done last summer and when I met with the surgeon beforehand he offered me the chance to get the short version of the explanation or the long one with the video and the complete list of things that could go wrong. I signed off on the short version: Too much information and my wife is a former hospital nurse who worries about that stuff for me.

It's still interesting what they can do and I have been known to watch some of it sometimes, just not on me.

ShopShoe

[ShopShoe]

BTW, Vice-Versa comment:

This puts me in mind that Many decades ago I visited the "Old" Smithsonian and saw the original heart-lung machine: Made from Erector-Set parts just like I had at home.

ShopShoe