YouTube Surgery: Carotid Endarterectomy
May 1, 2009 § 2 Comments
This is a video of a carotid endarterectomy, the removal of plaque from the carotid artery to prevent stroke.
The video has no voice over, and the captions are Chinese, but I’m posting it here because of the superb quality of the images. I would guess it have been recorded through a operation microscope. The surgical field is evenly lit, the colors are well differentiated and no parts of the image are overexposed.
The problem with a microscope as the only video source is, as this video shows, that editing will lead to jump cuts. Adding shots of the surgeon at the microscope, the OR setup etc. can solve this problem and add interesting information to the video.
The video starts when the artery is exposed and ends before the wound is closed. Here is a summary of what’s being done in the video:
- The artery and 2 of 3 branches are clamped.
- Saline solution is pumped into the artery to empty it of blood before the last branch is clamped.
- An incision is made in the artery wall and the plaque is removed.
- The incision is closed and checked for consistency.
- Surgicel is applied.
Smoking drastically increases the risk for the forming of atheromatous plaque – atherosclerosis. Here is an anti-smoking campaign video that uses footage from a carotid endarterectomy to get its point across:
The Sterile Eye 
good thing i don’t smoke… cool thing..learned a lot from the video.. hope you’ll have more of this informative videos
I just had it done yesterday and am at home today. No problem,no pain. On your next medical checkup.HAVE YOUR PHYSICIAN LISTEN TO YOUR CAROTID ARTERY!