Warning: This article contains graphic images and video which some readers may find distressing
Footage revealing what actually happens during Orthopaedic surgery has left people shook.
Let’s just say if you’re about to go into hospital to have some orthopaedic surgery anytime soon, it’s probably best you look away now.
This now-viral video shows two medical professionals dressed in their theatre gear made up of blue protective body clothing, hair nets, face masks and shields over their face too.
All that can be seen of the patient is a leg. Oh, and that leg has a great whopping metal rod sticking out of it.
If that doesn’t make you feel queasy enough already, then wait until one of the surgeons starts slamming the metal rod with a hammer, the knee jolting as they do.
Someone can be heard celebrating in the background, shouting ‘Yay’ every time the surgeon gives the rod a good old whack, everyone erupting into laughter and clapping once the ordeal is over.
And it’s not taken long for people to flood to social media in a mixture of horror and awe.
*Prays I never have to have orthopaedic surgery* (X)
One X user said: “It was at that moment he wished he had accepted the anaesthetic.”
“Aaaaaaaaaaa!!! my kneeee!!! i felt it bruv,” another added.
A third commented: “Dr when you come out of anesthesia … ‘you may be a little sore for a few days’.”
And a fourth claimed: “I worked in orthopaedic surgery, similar to construction. They are repairing a fractured tibia, as in getting it into alignment, usually from a car or sports accident. Once it is in alignment, they will nail or pin & screw it. Sometimes a Hoffman’s apparatus is used as traction.”
If this is indeed a repair of a fractured tibia, then the video captures a surgery called open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) taking place.
It’s like whack-a-mole but whack-a-pole (X)
John Hopkins Medicine explains: “Open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) is a type of surgery used to stabilize and heal a broken bone.
“[…] You might need ORIF to bring your bones back into place and help them heal if you fracture your tibia or fibula.”
During the surgery, doctors ‘reposition your bone pieces’ so they’re back in the right place without exposing the bone.
Then, to reconnect the bones, ‘internal fixation’ takes place, where doctors use ‘special screws, plates, nails (a metal rod inserted in the bone), or wires’ inside the bones to fix them in the correct place.
John Hopkins Medicine continues: “This prevents the bones from healing abnormally.”
Oh and it reassures: “The surgery usually takes place while you are asleep under general anesthesia.”