The scary bit for every patient

An incision in medical terms is nothing but the act of cutting a structure (skin, a vessel, an organ) with a sharp object (Scalpel, Laser, Bonesaw), but for the surgeon it's a completele different world:

That's what he loves, that what he's trained for year after year. Hours of reviewing CTs, X-Rays, bloodresults, examining the patient, speaking to relatives, letting the anaesthetist fumble around with the the patient culminate in that one happy moment when the scalpel touches the patient for the first time, slicing through the iodine stained skin, deep into the subcutaneous tissue.

Whether it is a Neurosurgeon opening a skull or GP performing a minor op to remove an ugly naevus or a BCC, this first moment is always special, as you can see the blood welling up under your cut, just to be quickly mopped up by your assistants.

As the person making that first incision you are in charge in your theatre, you can throw temper tantrums, throw things, snarl at the anaesthetist and stare down the cleavage of your nurse and get away with it.

Surgeons. The big weirdos of medicine...

In*ci"sion (?), n. [L. incisio: cf. F. incision. See Incise.]

1.

The act of incising, or cutting into a substance.

Milton.

2.

That which is produced by incising; the separation of the parts of any substance made by a cutting or pointed instrument; a cut; a gash.

3.

Separation or solution of viscid matter by medicines.

[Obs.]

 

© Webster 1913.

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