Surgical Cauteries and Damaged Hearts

Editor’s Note:

Often forgotten are the consequences of our intervention in matters relating to the heart, and minimizing damage as we attempt to fix it, or save it from overly aggressive efforts to intervene- thus ignoring the primary mandate from the Hippocratic Oath: to “Do No Harm“.

Although cauterization is employed to minimize pt risk associated with surgical bleeding, when used on or near the myocardium, it may lead to unintended ablation of the conductive system, essentially causing more damage to the heart than the good that it was intended for…  In other words, don’t become a Rover trying to repair bleeding that will most likely heal itself on its own- given time and patience…

To use an analogical perspective: you can literally “break a heart”.

Thought for the day?  Make sure that when you cauterize a wounded heart, that the bleeding stops and no further unintentional harm is inflicted…

Have an excellent Saturday 🙂