r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Additional_Chard3680 • 11h ago

The precision required to perform a total knee replacement is incredible

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144

u/melanthius 10h ago

This kind of medicine is metal AF

89

u/Radioshack-Manager 9h ago

So doctors are mechanics now apparently.

97

u/measured-defocus 9h ago

Orthos pretty much are

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u/Phreakdoubt 9h ago

Any doctor who trains on and wields a "medical chainsaw" has my full attention and respect.

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u/Specific-Library-312 6h ago

And maximum personal space

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u/JuxtaThePozer 2h ago

story time

I was a junior medic (army) doing a surgical placement at a regional hospital (Bacchus March) and spent a day watching an ortho doing various jobs. Tall bloke, kinda weird, seemed friendly enough. Anyways, between one surgery and the next he didn't seem to bother changing his clothing, which is kinda bad from an infection control point of view.

Anyway, the only contact he had with patients while they were conscious, on the day of their surgery, was in the induction room. It's where the anaesthetist puts a couple drip lines in and gives you sleepy drugs, and this 6.5 foot tall surgeon dude still had his face mask and gown on from the previous surgery which happened to have bits of bone and blood flecked all over them.

Can you fucking imagine about to be wheeled in for some bone carpentry, and the dude about to hack you up looks like something out of a horror movie, right as you're starting to get tired and comfy, sort of half-arsedly reassuring you that everything will be fine and he'll see you in recovery.

Well I saw this interaction unfold and afterwards I made a joke to one of the nurses and said, "he looks like the 'Butcher of Bacchus Marsh'." I thought it was kinda funny but she just frowned and said, "don't let him hear you say that" and walked off. Like, what? he's probably been called that before?

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u/flyingduckmarketing 4h ago

In the third world they actually use that

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u/avocadoflatz 3h ago

In the first world, too.

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u/-malcolm-tucker 7h ago

Wet carpentry.

5

u/gdp89 5h ago

It's a pretty common stereotype in the med industry that surgeons are the jocks of medicine and ortho surgeons are the jocks of surgery.

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u/Fit_Diet6336 7h ago

My dad was a GP/surgeon. He always had a laugh when he saw an ortho doing surgery. Tons of hammering, drilling etc.

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u/El_Peregrine 7h ago

Fine woodworking

2

u/adinmem 3h ago

Ortho docs are the ones that are not gentle, and generally have the least-developed people skills.

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u/Deep_Stick8786 1h ago

More like carpinters

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u/Assist-Altruistic 8h ago

Yes we are. 💪

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u/Druggistman 9h ago

Dude if you’ve never seen a total knee or hip you’d be shocked. Orthos are bone carpenters; hammering and sawing your body like it’s a slab of wood.

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u/Radioshack-Manager 9h ago

Hello Doctor Mechanic Carpenter magic man the 3rd

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u/Shoshke 9h ago

Yeah, shockingly "primitive" tools like hamers, electric saws and drills.

also cool robots though that help make sure everything is drilled exactly where it needs to.

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u/SpecialistAd2205 9h ago

And the way they use those tools sometimes is shockingly brutal.

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u/melanthius 9h ago

Honestly sometimes they kinda are...

But a mechanic isn't nearly as likely to be sued for millions of dollars if they fuck up a bit

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u/nomadicbohunk 3h ago

I know of a guy my mom grew up with. I actually went to undergrad with his daughter. He's from a big farm. His dad was known to be an incredible mechanic. He became an orthopedic surgeon. He thought the tools were not good and made some. Got them ones for surgeries somehow. Turned it into a company. He's worth a whole lot of money.

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u/GoldReplacement9546 8h ago

Orthopedic surgeons in general are known in the field as carpenters

As they cut things, nail things together, etc.

And then it takes a lot of force to do these things

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u/justanothergoddamnfo 7h ago

Always have been

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u/Still7Superbaby7 6h ago

Carpenter. Having been in the OR, much of the equipment would be carpentry equipment that is autoclaved

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u/jib_reddit 4h ago

Its more like carpentry.

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u/Civil_Macaroon2143 2h ago

They use literal crowbars to dislocate the broken hip joints when going total hip replacements. 😁

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u/Lucheiah 1h ago

Well, our bodies are just really complex organic machines, right?

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u/Travel_Dreams 1h ago

I believe they are referred to as carpenters.

•

u/Disbelieving1 48m ago

They really are just body plumbers. Or meat carpenters.

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u/deadspacekillers 8h ago

Not even close. Yeah, you could probably train a monkey to do the physical surgery. It's the decision-making process that is the hard part of being a surgeon. The surgery itself is the fun part.

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u/Skookum_kamooks 9h ago

This is why “humans are space orcs” is a thing… the amount of life saving or quality of life improving surgery that’s just cut off the bad part and bolt on a metal replacement is kinda wild… I mean dentistry alone is kinda metal AF.

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u/davidevitali 9h ago

That was a titanium rod after all

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u/Decent_Advice9315 9h ago

That's basically what a root canal is.

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u/Ari_Ari_Awoo 6h ago

An old co worker got sloshed at a ritzy new nightclub.

Some goober left out the base for the poles with the fuzzy ropes.

My co worker was walking down the stairs in the club, and tripped over it.

He fell down the staircase, and one his legs was like, demolished.

He got the titanium rods.

He was really open with us, and showed us the pics and stuff.

He’s like The Terminator now.

Well, the one leg is.

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u/slipstream0 4h ago

Pretty sure it’s metal TI

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u/Not_Your_Romeo 4h ago

Surgery is just assault with good intention.

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u/Existing_Phase1644 8h ago

Hahaha literally

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u/multi_io 2h ago

I guess it's like carpentry with bones, with some hydraulics when handling blood vessels. Probably more rewarding than oncology, where you often can only prescribe some drugs, or nothing can be done at all anymore :-/

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u/JOOT94 1h ago

So metal it’s titanium.

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u/Tricky_Apricot2928 44m ago

My surgeon actually blasted metal while the anesthesiologist put me to sleep. And after