j4ckos mate

What does it drain away, why does it need to be in?

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

Depending on the operation you can get a lot of fluid build up, blood from bruising predominantely.

Your body is an amazing thing and will detect when it's broken and try to repair itself, a sticky yellow fluid is produced in abundance to literally glue everything back together again. Don't know the technical name for it perhaps someone else does....

lightning101

To rid the area of fluid

PeteBrant

Um - you don't do you? I've had three ops, and not had a drain in when I've come round in any of them.

Unless you mean whilst you still on the operating table?

j4ckos mate

ok thanks jsut wondered.

lightning101

If you get an infection you would have it inserted post op. It won't heal any quicker though

Lisawrx

iTrader: (1)

Think it depends on the operation Pete. Although I'm not sure exactly what it's purpose is (well I wasn't, til now), but when my Mam had her surgery for Breast Cancer last year, she had to have a drain for a while, it was quite uncomfortable for her to say the least.

mrtheedge2u2

Depends on where the operation is and what it is......eg. if you have an operation to correct jaw alignment where they need to break and split the jaw then you will have a drain on each side just beneath the jaw line to remove slight internal bleeding and fluid build up.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

You mean the platelets - they act as a binding agent, and too many of them can cause a thrombosis (blood clot)

Good link I just found: Blood: Platelets - The Human Heart: An Online Exploration from The Franklin Institute, made possible by Unisys

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

No I don't think I do. What I'm talking about is a yellow fluid that physically glues stuff back together, sometime you create too much and that's bad for you, thats why they drain it off.

For instance I've seen it stick skin to the muscle tissue underneath (tether).

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

like this?

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

I still don't think so although I completely acknowledge that I lack the information to be able to categorically say no.

I'm sure a nurse or even a doctor around here may be able to put the record straight.

gaz-cole

out of all the ops i have had the only one with a drain fitted when i woke up was my knee op and it hurt alot when it was pulled out

mrtheedge2u2

I think milamber is talking about fibrin, even though fibrin is not a liquid, it makes up the end stages of the clot as the tissue repairs itself

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

which is derived from the platelets

David Lock

Well done Google

mrtheedge2u2

Not quite true Kieran..... fibrin is a seperate compound that adheres to the platelet mesh as part of the coagulation (blood clotting) cascade.

Milamber

iTrader: (2)

is a protein that works in conjunction with platelets

looky here


I still don't think this is the answer to be honest....

mrtheedge2u2

yes, I know what it is........ but the whole system of tissue repair is called the coagulation cascade (search it).... you will not find a specific name for the yellow liquid, they will simply refer to it as pus or some other generic term

Eg... you have specific liquid formulations such as blood, plasma, sebum, sinovial fluid etc... but I do not think you will get a medical term for the yellow liquid....

MMT WRX

I had a burst appendix and peritonitis a few years ago, ended up in ICU for 4 weeks. When I came round I was being fed into my neck, could only have sips of water every 2 hours, I couldn't eat properly for about 5 weeks, part of my stomach had been removed and was stitched all the way down the front. I had 3 drains, 1 looked like a long grooved strip of plastic which was inside and behind the stitches and 2 more, 1 each side, which were 10mm plastic tube about 2 feet long full of holes and curled up inside my guts. Each of these had a bag stuck to my skin on the outside. The worst part was having them removed: The tubes in each side which were stitched into my skin were bad enough, initially I thought they were only about an inch or two long, but when they were pulling...and pulling till eventually the nurse had pulled this great length of tube out I nearly passed out. The one behind the stitches had stuck to the wound and the Doctor ended up virtually having a tug o war to remove this, when it finally shifted I thought my insides were being ripped out whole.

Anyway to answer your question the gunk that came out of these drains was f*cking disgusting. Green, red and brown stuff that I'm sure was better out than in. I also had one shoved up my nose and in to my stomach. Every so often this would pump copious amounts of bright green fluid into another bag attached to the side of the bed.

Not much fun I can tell you.

mrtheedge2u2

I'm sexually aroused

MMT WRX

I can understand that.

Leslie

I had a drain after the cancer op, but not after the bypass one or the one to rebuild my hip. Bit of a nuisance but worth the inconvenience to get it all sorted.

Les

lozgti

Nearest I can think is the yellow goo that went on to form a scab after you'd lost the skin off your knees .

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

Have you had one fitted, to go with the extractor fan in the back of your jeans ?

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

I used to like tractors......... but now I'm an extractor fan

The "yellow stuff" being mentioned is serum I guess.....google "erythrocyte sedimentation rate" and the "yellow" stuff sits on top of the cellular component of blood.

I've put in a few drains in my (younger) life, usually vacuum drains following surgery for facial trauma, infection or elective surgery. Gets rid of tissue fluid, exudate, and small amounts of blood.

Shaun

Jamo

iTrader: (23)

I had two drains after I "broke" my arm a few years ago, I basically snapped my arm in half and had to have internal fixation, the problems was that I had already snapped the arm a couple of years before and the plates that were in there already had caused a lot of muscle damage, so when I came around I had two, one in each side where they had inserted them into the muscle, as above you can only see a bit from the surface, I can honestly say that when they pulled them out of my arm it hurt more than when I snapped my arm in two! it was terrible.

StickyMicky

looks like mustard

xdave

i had a drain in my stomach after my op and yes it hurt when they pulled it out but the cafater hurt a lot more when they pulled that out .