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> the most important person in a major surgery is the anaesthesiologist, not the surgeon(s) Could you explain more? It seems to me that, as sans surgeon there
by chrismorgan 1y ago
> the most important person in a major surgery is the anaesthesiologist, not the surgeon(s)
Could you explain more? It seems to me that, as sans surgeon there is no surgery, the surgeon is inevitably the most important person. Anæsthetic in its current form is a comparatively recent invention; historically major surgery was done without it, and in emergencies can still be done without it (at the cost of excruciating pain and far higher risk of negative outcomes, of course).
- rkomorn 1y agoI learned about this recently, myself, and was surprised and ended up looking into it. I read that the anesthesiologist is the person responsible for the patient during the surgery. Apparently their role is: - Provide continual medical assessment of the patient - Monitor and control the patient’s vital life functions, including heart rate and rhythm, breathing, blood pressure, body temperature and body fluid balance - Control the patient’s pain and level of consciousness to make conditions ideal for a safe and successful surgery The gist I got from the other things I've read is that the anesthesiologist also has the most go/no-go responsibility before and during surgery. Source: https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/anesthesiology/patient-information/role-of-the-anesthesiologist/ https://www.medschool.umaryland.edu/anesthesiology/patient-i... Edit: I recommend reading more about the anesthesiologist's role. I found it interesting even as an entirely casual observer.
- chrismorgan 1y agoI do know all that, but it still doesn’t really seem enough to qualify them as the most important person. Sure, they have the biggest power of veto, but without the surgeon, there is no surgery at all. Remove the anæsthetist, and procedure forbids you from continuing. Remove the surgeon, and it’s impossible to continue. … Or remove the patient. I guess the patient is the most important person there after all! (Actually, that does a pretty good job of showing how the entire notion of “most important” may not make sense.)
- hdjfjkremmr 1y agothis line of thinking is flawed - remove this tiny resistor from the motherboard and the computer will not boot -> this proves this tiny resistor is as important as the CPU.
- croes 1y agoCan build a computer without that resistor? The logic is about what is absolutely necessary to achieve what you try to achieve
- rkomorn 1y agoWithout the surgeon, you just get a nurse or a butcher or someone who stayed at a Holiday Inn last night. It's about as reasonable as doing surgery without an anesthesiologist.
- fastasucan 1y ago>Sure, they have the biggest power of veto, but without the surgeon, there is no surgery at all. And without anaesthesiologist there is no surgery at all either for 90% of the cases. Id rather have a nurse have a go than to do this awake without sedatives, without anyone monitoring me. Just think about this for a second.
- croes 1y ago100% > 90%
- hinkley 1y agoLong ago I learned that anesthesiologists make more money than devs when starting out. Not a lot more, but most medical professionals do not. When I asked why the answer was because it's the most dangerous job there. There's more opportunity to kill a patient with the anesthesia than any other means. The main reason they don't want you to eat before surgery is that you can regurgitate and damage your lungs. But even if they solved that, the anesthesiologist's job is easier if you're in a fasting state both before and at the end of a surgery. A quadruple bypass is not dangerous because you're stitching 4 new arteries onto a heart. It's dangerous because it takes so long to stitch 4 new arteries onto the heart that you're running up against the limits of how long you can safely keep someone sedated without causing life threatening complications. I'm having trouble finding current statistics but at the time I was learning this, a double bypass was many times safer than a quadruple. Articles on bypass surgery understandably focus on the aspects that are within the patient's control.
- johncolanduoni 1y agoI thought the duration-related risk for that kind of surgery was based on how long the patient is put on a heart and lung machine? Naively I'd expect that to be riskier than the anesthesia.
- usrusr 1y agoHow is "the patient is put on a heart and lung machine" not the field of anaesthesia? That's exactly what it is.
- johncolanduoni 1y agoThat's a different specialty - perfusionist. Most surgeries with general anesthesia don't require a heart and lung machine and anesthesiologists aren't trained to operate one.
- bonsai_spool 1y agoI’m not sure where you’re getting your salary data, but doctors routinely earn more than developers