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soapboxingdaychamp OP t1_jdp49wh wrote

Reply to comment by AnkhThePhoenix in Incision in my arm that doctors left open for 2 weeks after a surgery. by soapboxingdaychamp

To let it drain. It was extremely swollen when they did the surgery.

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Pepsi_Cola64 t1_jdps669 wrote

Funny. To let my surgery site drain, they just used draining tubes

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Ok_Button1932 t1_jdq65ai wrote

That was for a completely different purpose. This would have been done to prevent compartment syndrome

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datacadia t1_jdr5x5w wrote

Ty, I've been wondering why they didn't use tubes.

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Fayarager t1_jdsc8rw wrote

This is called a fasciotomy. It's to prevent compartment syndrome.

For an ELI5; When you injure something, your body responds naturally by inflaming the area. In other words, swelling up the area. Your body doesn't care about side effects and doesn't monitor what this can cause in the process, it just wants to deal with the current injury. When your body goes too hard with this, or swells too much, it increases the pressure under the skin or muscle. If this pressure gets too high, it can squeeze the arteries and veins inside the muscles too.

When these arteries get squeezed, it can cut off blood supply completely, to anything past that area. Within minutes of complete loss of circulation, irreparable damage to everything past the bloodflow blockage, can occur. It can lead to losing a limb or even killing you (blood will clot, then when swelling goes down, the clot can move to your heart or brain and you die.

To prevent these complications, there is a procedure called a fasciotomy. This is basically just a fancy word for cutting open a hole so that some of the pressure has a place to go. Think about a stress ball. When you squeeze it really hard, you're putting pressure on it, and the stress ball will move around to disperse the pressure youre squeezing. Your body cannot do that, if you squeeze your arm as hard as you can, it doesn't act like a stress ball and just move somewhere else, its stuck there.

So this fasciotomy, opens up a hole for the tissue to squeeze out, just a little bit. Now, it wont completely come out cus again its tissue, its muscle, its all attached, but it gives it a place to kind of move around a little bit. This little bit of pressure release is typically all that is needed to relieve pressure on the arteries and veins, allowing bloodflow through again, saving the arm/leg/whatever.

Typically this is a last resort emergency measure.

hope this helps

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BigRoach t1_jdrh25e wrote

oh damn. At first I though you meant they just forgot to close it, and you didn’t bother telling them. haha. Hope you’re recovery goes well.

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AnkhThePhoenix t1_jdqdqqi wrote

Seems a bit much to let it drain but if it was swollen that badly, I suppose it makes sense.

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pattyG80 t1_jdsa61t wrote

Staph or step infection? What happened to you?

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