If we take a hot wire and put it on someones skin, the skin will burn and bleed... Where does the destroyed tissue go??? How is the tissue destroyed at atomic levels???
How do doctors stop bleeding with heat during surgery? I mean the mechanism...
How do doctors stop bleeding with heat during surgery? I mean the mechanism...
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Several things happen when a localized but severe burn occurs. The water in tissues (remember that humans are about 65% water) boils off as cells rupture. Some of the biological molecules (proteins, lipids, etc.) burn forming various compounds with oxygen from air. These contribute to the smell of burnt tissue. Finally small fragments are blown off by the boiling of neighboring cells. So some of the tissue is destroyed at the molecular level but other parts just go flying away as debris or gas/vapor.
The mechanism of cauterization (burning to stop bleeding) is partly the same but also includes blood clotting caused by blood proteins being denatured by the heat and quickly forming a clot in the same way that tossing an egg on a hot pan quickly causes the proteins to coagulate. You can read more about cauterization here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauterizati…
The mechanism of cauterization (burning to stop bleeding) is partly the same but also includes blood clotting caused by blood proteins being denatured by the heat and quickly forming a clot in the same way that tossing an egg on a hot pan quickly causes the proteins to coagulate. You can read more about cauterization here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cauterizati…