45 ms·

I think that depends on your definition of "harmed". If I used a laser to burn my initials into your underarm in a place that no one would ever see it.... would

I think that depends on your definition of "harmed". If I used a laser to burn my initials into your underarm in a place that no one would ever see it.... would you say that I harmed you? Is it certain that a couple inches of laser beam scar tissue in a liver has not, and will not in the future cause any medical issues for the patients in question?

orliesaurus 9y ago
I got laser surgery done and that left a big scar on my neck, can confirm 10 years later I'm still functioning properly. Now the liver is different but from reading the article it seems this was just a stupid non-life-threatening decision taken by a surgeon who thought he was painting on canvas
- Johnny555 9y ago
  Yes, but my question wasn't "What if you had an unavoidable scar from laser surgery", my question was "would you feel harmed if I burnt my initials into some not-normally visible part of your skin" for no other reason than to say that I was there? Even minor scarring adds to the bodies burden in healing, so I think it's hard to definitively say that the laser inscribed initials did not cause any harm or increased risk at all. After all, these were not strong, healthy people -- they were sick enough to require liver surgery... and one of them had to have followup treatment which is when the initials were discovered.
King-Aaron 9y ago
> Is it certain that a couple inches of laser beam scar tissue in a liver has not, and will not in the future cause any medical issues for the patients in question? It could well lead to Cirrhosis of the liver. Not to mention Adhesion that could become painful. I'm not too sure how likely either issue is, however I wouldn't like to assume that scarring your liver is going to be completely free of complications... Though by the time you're having an intraoperative procedure done on your liver, you're already not free from complications.
- hycaria 9y ago
  >It could well lead to Cirrhosis of the liver. Not to mention Adhesion that could become painful. Do you have any medical background ? Did you ever use a coagulator ? Or ever saw a liver with your own eyes and the eventual scars those get because of routinely occurring small infarctii or such ? I doubt so, as this is utter bullshit. > I'm not too sure how likely either issue is Not likely at all in this universe
  - King-Aaron 9y ago
    > Do you have any medical background ? Briefly, working as a theatre technician in coronary intervention. We used diathermy etc in the lab.
- DanBC 9y ago
  It's not intended to be a permanent scar. These marks are routinely used to mark out areas of the liver to be worked on, and they should normally heal. In this case he did it to a patient and the marks didn't heal. (By definition he works on patients who's livers are less likely to heal), but it didn't cause any further harm.

orliesaurus 9y ago

I got laser surgery done and that left a big scar on my neck, can confirm 10 years later I'm still functioning properly. Now the liver is different but from reading the article it seems this was just a stupid non-life-threatening decision taken by a surgeon who thought he was painting on canvas

Johnny555 9y ago
Yes, but my question wasn't "What if you had an unavoidable scar from laser surgery", my question was "would you feel harmed if I burnt my initials into some not-normally visible part of your skin" for no other reason than to say that I was there? Even minor scarring adds to the bodies burden in healing, so I think it's hard to definitively say that the laser inscribed initials did not cause any harm or increased risk at all. After all, these were not strong, healthy people -- they were sick enough to require liver surgery... and one of them had to have followup treatment which is when the initials were discovered.

King-Aaron 9y ago

> Is it certain that a couple inches of laser beam scar tissue in a liver has not, and will not in the future cause any medical issues for the patients in question? It could well lead to Cirrhosis of the liver. Not to mention Adhesion that could become painful. I'm not too sure how likely either issue is, however I wouldn't like to assume that scarring your liver is going to be completely free of complications... Though by the time you're having an intraoperative procedure done on your liver, you're already not free from complications.

hycaria 9y ago
>It could well lead to Cirrhosis of the liver. Not to mention Adhesion that could become painful. Do you have any medical background ? Did you ever use a coagulator ? Or ever saw a liver with your own eyes and the eventual scars those get because of routinely occurring small infarctii or such ? I doubt so, as this is utter bullshit. > I'm not too sure how likely either issue is Not likely at all in this universe
- King-Aaron 9y ago
  > Do you have any medical background ? Briefly, working as a theatre technician in coronary intervention. We used diathermy etc in the lab.
DanBC 9y ago
It's not intended to be a permanent scar. These marks are routinely used to mark out areas of the liver to be worked on, and they should normally heal. In this case he did it to a patient and the marks didn't heal. (By definition he works on patients who's livers are less likely to heal), but it didn't cause any further harm.