Often, surgeons use small, thin knives, called scalpels, and other sharp tools to cut through the part of the body during operations. Sometimes, Surgery involves cutting through the skin, muscles and even bones. These cuts may be painful, and take some time for recovery.
During surgery, anaesthesia prevents you from feeling Pain. Anaesthesia refers to drugs or other substances that cause you to lose sensation or sensitivity. Anaesthesia are of three types:
- Local anaesthesia causes loss of sensation in one specific small area of the body.
- Regional anaesthesia induces a lack of feeling in a portion of the body, like an arm or a leg.
- General anaesthesia causes a complete loss of awareness that appears to be in a very deep sleep.
The primary purpose of cancer Surgery is to cure your cancer by removing it all or in part, from your body. This is usually done by the onco-surgeon cutting into your body and removing the cancer along with some healthy tissue in the neighbouring area to ensure all cancer is eliminated.
Also, your surgeon may remove certain lymph nodes in the area and determine if the cancer has spread. This allows your doctor to assess both your chance of being cured and the need for further treatment.
In the case of Breast Cancer surgery, the doctor may remove the cancer by detaching the whole breast (mastectomy) or by removing just the substantial part of your breast that encompasses the cancer and even some of the adjacent tissue (lumpectomy).
In Lung Cancer surgery, the surgeon may remove part of the lung (lobectomy) or the one entire lung (pneumonectomy) to extract all of the cancer.
In both of these examples, at the time of the procedure, the surgeon may also detach certain lymph nodes in the area to see if the cancer is spreading.
