Post created by Lidia and Ana
Do you often catch yourself watching medical dramas and wonder if these do occur in real life? Well, you're in luck. Today, we have an episode of Grey's Anatomy, where they perform open-heart surgery on a fully awake person. For those who have not seen this critically acclaimed medical drama, Grey's Anatomy, it is a show that takes place right here in our neighboring city, Seattle, Washington. The show follows a group of interns of surgery as they move up the medical hierarchy, and they learn what it means to be an adult. So follow us on this journey as we explore the accuracy and reality of this episode.
To begin, having open-heart surgery with the patient fully awake and aware is possible. In the past, there have been 31 cases world-wide, and 1 case in the United States without general anesthetic. With this being said, these types of surgeries are very rare due to the complication that arises with having the patient awake. Some of the risks include the risk of anesthetics being directly applied to the spinal cord, possibly preventing the patient from breathing. Although this is the case having an epidural over general anesthetic will reduce recovery time. But generally, the good does not outweigh the risks presented with having this surgery. In a sense, the show was correct in how it expressed this rare case, but how patients react or what their behaviors are is unclear in real life. In regards to the heart, there are a few things to understand regarding what it is made of and how it can handle surgery.
Even though the heart is a very fragile organ, it is able to stretch. The heart is made up of cardiac muscles, valves, blood vessels, specialized conductive tissue, and non-specialized connective tissue. But the reason the heart can stretch is that it has specialized cell junctions called desmosomes. Desmosomes are a type of cell-to-cell adhesion. They anchor two non-touching cells, which is the reason they can stretch; they are also the strongest cell-to-cell connection. The heart's ability to stretch allows it to perform the tasks given; it is also one reason that makes surgeries possible.
Sources: https://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=118051&page=1 (a fact about open-heart surgery)
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