Emergency surgery also called urgent surgery in medical terms is a surgery that is performed when a patient’s condition is life threatening. A surgery is utmost required to deal with severe threat to life, any organ or limb or tissue that can be a result of complication of previous surgery, trauma or disease. According to medical professionals, emergency surgery should be performed immediately with or without the consent of the patient or his family.
Different kinds of surgeries
There are three most important types of surgical procedures, based on the time in which they need to be performed. These are:
3.Emergency or Urgent surgery
Elective surgery is optional and surgeons may plan before or according to the requirement. Required surgery though very important and are necessary to improve a patient’s health condition and can also be planned ahead of time.
However, emergency surgery needs to be performed immediately as the condition of patient is very critical in this case.
Getting to know about Emergency Surgery and whether you will need it
Most top grade hospitals have well-experienced doctors and medical professionals who would examine you instantaneously once you visit them with a life or limb threatening illness or injury. If it is seen and understood that you really require surgery, you would be admitted immediately to undergo the necessary procedures.
However, it must be kept in mind that emergency surgery needs consent form the patient and/ or from his family members. As such, in this surgical procedure an informed consent process is required. A patient gets to learn about the purpose, benefits, potential risks involved or other types of surgical intervention and then he/ she agrees to undergo the surgical procedure. However, if the patient remains unconscious and is unable to provide the required consent and the family members are also not present, the medical professionals then will continue with the procedure on the assumption that it si extremely vital for the patient to save life or limb or any other organ.
Some common types of Emergency Surgeries:
Here, we discuss some of the most common types of emergency surgeries.
Emergency abdominal surgery: Often certain disorders in the digestive system occur because of intestinal obstructions, abscesses, hernias, ruptured organs, restricted blood flow etc. can affect your abdomen area and result in acute pain and can be life-threatening. In such cases, you need immediate surgery to correct your disorder and live a healthy life.
Emergency heart surgery: Several surgeries like angioplasty, valve surgery, bypass surgery, stent placement, and transplantations are involved with the heart, one of the most important organs of your body, if your heart does not function properly or there is some problem with the heart. These types of surgical procedures can be performed on an emergency basis to check the cardiac-disorder.
Emergency hip replacement surgery: Often due to falls or accidents, fractures occur in the hip region. Hip fractures involve femur bone fracture and/or pelvic bone fracture and is considered as orthopaedic emergencies. In such case, emergency or urgent surgery is done to correct the breakage. Emergency surgery results to replacement of hip bone with an artificial prosthesis.
Emergency gallbladder surgery: Many diseases such as gall stones, block or restriction of the flow of bile to small intestine affect the organ called gall bladder, an organ that stores bile produced by the liver. The diseases involved with gall bladder can be very painful and as such needs treating gallstones, and including gallbladder removal.
Emergency hernia surgery: It is often seen that there is severe pain in the hernia region along with fever, bloating, nausea, vomiting. This is the case of hernia problem. Organs when partially protrude through the abdominal wall causing a tear in the membrane, the organs are herniated. And it may happen that blood flow to the organ is blocked and thus medical emergency surgery is needed to correct the problem.
Emergency CABG (Coronary Artery Bypass Surgery): An important and emergency surgery which is done to clear off the blockages in the arteries. The surgeon uses blood vessels from other parts of the body to bypass around the arteries to improve the life of the patient.
Emergency hysterectomy surgery: This type of surgical procedure involves removal of a part or whole of a woman’s uterus. When there is severe uterine bleeding, emergency hysterectomies are performed to stop this.
Emergency neck surgery: Symptoms of disorder in neck region includes pain in the neck and arm areas, tingling, or weakness in the limbs, and numbness. This results in severe pain and neurological damage. To relieve pressure on nerves or spinal cord caused by bulging discs, tumours, bone spurs, cysts emergency neck surgeries are performed.
Emergency ulcer surgery: Ulcers are wounds or injuries caused by a bacterium and are formed in the inner lining of the stomach. Generally ulcers are treated effectively with antibiotics; however, if the drugs cannot treat ulcers and other medical complications occur, surgical treatment is performed with immediate effect.
Emergency sinus surgery: Sinusitis is an infection caused due to sinuses. Surgery is performed by surgeons to treat when medication fails or proves to be ineffective. Sometimes, with compromised immune systems, sinusitis need an emergency surgical procedure.
However, in any medical crisis, medical professionals are the best judge who can advise you on whether to go for emergency surgery or not. But whatever the case, you must be prepared and give consent in order to carry out the surgical procedure. Consult a doctor before everything and visit a hospital which has experienced and skilled surgeons. They are able to perform emergency surgeries.
Though all attempts are made to provide correct information on the subject, inadvertent & typographical errors arising out of manual intervention cannot be ruled out. It is requested to bring any such discrepancies to the notice of the blogger for correction.