- Separating two human beings at birth,
removing your entire esophagus,
living with a hole in your skull,
here are seven of the most dangerous medical procedures
that could either heal you or kill you.
(upbeat music)
While there are many different types of medical operations
and all have risks,
there are some medical procedures
that prove to be extremely risky.
Today, we're not holding back
and discussing the most dangerous types of procedures
to experience as a patient, but before we get into it,
if you're new to my channel, welcome,
my name is Dr. Jordan Wagner.
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All right, let's dive right in.
Number seven on the list
of the most dangerous medical procedures,
the separation of conjoined twins.
A grueling nine to 10 hour procedure
that can involve at minimum more than 30 different surgeons
and specialists like anesthesiologists, hepatologists,
surgeons, nurses, technicians,
all simultaneously working on this crazy operation.
You might be wondering what exactly is a conjoined twin?
Conjoined twins are identical twins
who are joined together in utero.
This is an extremely rare phenomenon
that occurs only once every 50 to 60,000 births.
The two twins could be connected at the skull,
the chest, share organs, not share internal organs.
To say it gets super complicated
when discussing a separation surgery
would be the understatement of the year.
Talk about high risk, I mean, if the twins are conjoined
in an area that can't be divided evenly,
the surgery could result in death of one or even both twins,
and the decision of whether or not
to even have the separation surgery
is a very serious discussion to have as well.
Generally speaking, medical experts out there
report that conjoined twins typically have a poor prognosis
with only 60% of surgically separated cases surviving.
So it's a true medical miracle
when these types of surgeries are successful.
Number six most dangerous medical procedure, colectomy.
From 2008 to 2011,
some scary stats revealed that the mortality rate
for this type of surgery was somewhere around 5.3%.
The complication rate was over 42%,
that's a very high possibility of things going wrong.
So let's dive deeper.
What exactly is a colectomy?
A colectomy is a very involved medical surgery
that removes all or part of the colon,
also known as the large intestine,
the long, nearly six foot tube-like organ
that makes up our digestive tract
and handles things like dehydrating your food
and turning it into stool
and getting rid of that waste from our body.
But here's the craziest part,
one of the more common reasons
one may have to undergo emergent surgery
and have part of their colon removed
is an infection that can occur
in the small pocket of the intestine.
This pocket infection condition is called diverticulitis.
In a perfect world, this can be treated with antibiotics,
but if the infected pouch decides to rupture,
unfortunately, surgery is required
to remove that part of the colon.
That however is not the only reason
one may undergo a colectomy,
things like volvulus or twisting of the intestine may do it.
Bowel obstruction may be a culprit,
Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, and colon cancer.
Well, they are always a very delicate and serious procedure
with a high chance of infection, bleeding
blood clots in the legs, or DVTs, pulmonary embolism,
or blood clot to the lungs and damage to other nearby organs
in like the bladder and small intestines.
And in addition to the removal of the large intestine,
often patients will require additional surgeries
to reattach the areas of the digestive system
in order to let waste get out of the body,
making this seriously, one of the most burdensome surgeries
to recover from and difficult procedures for physicians.
Number five, bladder cystectomy,
our next dangerous procedure
could potentially greatly impact
how someone uses the restroom
and has sex for the rest of their life.
And puts simply, it's a dangerous
but sometimes necessary surgery that removes the bladder.
And in radical instances of cystectomy
the surgeon will also remove organs
like the prostate, seminal vessels,
uterus and ovaries as well.
Not always, but usually caused by things we hate
like cancer of the bladder.
So what other complicated matters
go into a procedure like this?
Details like having to find new ways
to properly store or get rid of urine inside one's body,
a very important function of keeping the body healthy
that one cannot overlook.
To address this,
sometimes surgeons will have to do a urostomy
or a surgery that allows urine, pee, to leave our body
without going through your bladder,
basically re-routing things a bit
or specialists will sometimes do things
like create or form an internal pouch
from part of your intestines.
They call these pouches neobladders
and they're able to store a patient's urine
instead of the original bladder that needed to be removed.
Number four, esophagectomy.
If you were asked what your favorite body part would be,
chances are you probably never in a million years
named the esophagus, but maybe this often overlooked organ
should be a bit higher on the pecking order.
I mean, for starters
it does cool things like transport food and beverages
from your throat to your stomach, helping keep you alive.
But frankly, most people wouldn't even think
about the esophagus until something goes wrong with it,
as is the case with our next dangerous procedure,
an esophagectomy.
Basically this procedure is when they partially or entirely
remove the esophagus tube, typically due to cancer.
It's the hope of medical professionals
that if they remove an esophagus
that is showing signs of having cancer,
they're able to help stop the spread of cancer
to your stomach and other organs.
But because of the nature of the risky incisions
to the neck area, things like impacting breathing,
bleeding, leaking of fluids into the stomach, clots
and infection are the most significant risks.
The size of the incision is also dependent
on the severity of the process
and how much of the esophagus needs to be removed.
Number three, another dangerous procedure, a craniectomy.
The brain is clearly one of our most crucial complex organs
in our bodies.
That goes without saying really
but in case you need a reminder
the brain controls thought, memory, emotion, touch,
motor skills, vision, breathing, temperature, hunger,
and every process that regulates our body,
together, the brain and spinal cord that extends from it
make up the central nervous system.
So when you start talking about words like craniectomy,
we know that things are about to get complicated.
Basically, a craniectomy is a neurosurgical procedure
that involves removing a portion of the skull
in order to relieve pressure on the underlying brain,
usually used in conjunction with treating TBIs
or traumatic brain injuries,
but that's not the only brutal part
of the conversation either.
As I mentioned before, during the surgery
part of the skull is removed
to allow for swelling but that piece of skull,
well, it's not replaced immediately
after the surgery is completed either,
to put it simply, patients will have to recover from surgery
and live with part of their skull missing.
Therefore leaving the fully recovered patient
the risk of brain damage after the surgery,
if they do not adequately protect their head
in that section.
Also, if things weren't already complicated enough,
depending on the area of the brain
where the procedure is performed,
other serious risks like changes or loss in functions
of vision, mobility, speech, memory, coordination
and more, can be permanent as well.
In the past, this type of surgery was usually performed
as a last resort, but with the progress of technology,
it is utilized much more frequently nowadays
and could definitely save a person's life.
Number two is spinal osteomyelitis surgery.
Cue the dramatic music, please.
This next procedure is a doozy,
and if it's not fixed can cause osteonecrosis or bone death.
Yeah, not fun at all.
Vertebral osteomyelitis is an infection to your spinal area,
and it's caused by things like spinal trauma,
bacteria and viruses that spread to a vertebrae
from the blood or even disc based infections.
Basically any part of your vertebrae
could potentially become infected
and severely infected at that.
If a serious bone infection is left untreated
it could be life threatening for sure
and cause permanent physical impairments.
Osteonecrosis, bone death is no joke,
hence, why a medical expert would suggest the surgery.
But anytime we're talking about the delicate intricacies
that is the spinal column and central nervous system,
we have to pause and really point out the potential risk
associated with having surgery
on this highly sensitive area.
Things like complete or partial paralysis
or other serious infections
beyond your already serious spinal infection.
Number one, thoracic aortic dissection repair.
If you have uncontrolled high blood pressure
or hardening of the arteries, you may wanna listen
to our next most dangerous medical procedure,
thoracic aortic dissection repair.
A whole lot of words that basically mean
the risky emergency surgery to fix an aortic dissection
or really serious tear in the inner layer
of the body's main artery.
You see, unlike girl interrupted failed anatomy lesson
of where the aorta is,
the aorta is the largest blood vessel in the body
basically responsible for transporting oxygen-rich blood
from your heart to the rest of your body
and not to rain on this medical parade further,
but acute aortic dissection is unfortunately highly lethal
if not recognized and treated aggressively.
Anything that raises blood pressure
significantly could also increase your risk.
All right, enough scary talk.
Let's talk about fixing the aortic care.
How does one go about it?
Well, a surgeon first will remove the dissected aorta
and then rebuild the blood vessel with a synthetic graft,
a very meticulous procedure that should complications arise,
you're looking at internal bleeding, stroke, organ damage,
but if it's a successful procedure
you will get to go on living your best life.
All right, that's been some dangerous medical procedures
with me Dr. Wagner.
Discussing these procedures is not meant to scare you,
but rather educate you and open your eyes
to how truly delicate our bodies are
and how far the advances in medicine
have come over the years.
I find it truly remarkable
that doctors and health specialists
are able to do these procedures and save lives every day.
Let me know in the comments
if you know of any other dangerous medical procedures
you'd like me to cover, there are tons.
Maybe I'll include them in the next video.
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Thank you so much for watching and stay healthy my friends.
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