Don't fantasize about space immigration yet. Do you know how difficult it is to do a space operation?

In a 4-square-meter operating room, the patient is safely lying on the operating table. However, the operating table is floating, and the doctor shows the moving posture of "spacewalk" from time to time.

This is the first space operation carried out by human beings. In weightlessness, they took out a cyst from the patient within 8 minutes.

In order to avoid objects floating around, all surgical instruments are fixed around the metal operating table with strong magnets. Doctors and assistants put on special clothes and fix them on the slide rails with ropes. However, after local anesthesia, the patient was still awake and underwent resection of forearm lipoma.

In weightlessness, patients will have physical changes such as decreased cardiac output and decreased arterial blood pressure. However, during the operation, the outflow of blood is randomly suspended in the space without gravity constraint. Full beads of liquid gathered around the wound like a dome and quickly spread to all parts of the operating room. In order to avoid disturbing the field of vision, the staff had to use a vacuum aspirator for suction.

Seemingly simple tumor resection is difficult to perform. Accidents may happen at any time in weightlessness. In the end, the space operation was as perfect as expected.

It showed a space scene, but it was actually carried out on a microgravity plane.

* Note: Microgravity refers to an environment where the acceleration caused by gravity or other external forces is close to zero, and the object is in weightlessness.

Experiment on a microgravity aircraft

On September 27th, 2006, the French A300 passenger plane welcomed several special passengers. Three surgeons, two anesthesiologists, 1 patient and 1 cameraman boarded the spaceship. They have no destination, but they have to complete the first human space surgery challenge in a three-hour flight.

The reason why the plane can provide microgravity environment is because it adopts the flying mode of roller coaster. Fly around at an altitude of 6 100~8400 meters. When flying to the top of the parabola, the pilot turned off the engine and let the plane fall freely with almost no gravity. At this time, the crew will experience a hard-won weightlessness of about 22 seconds.

Airliner weightlessness experience

The short weightlessness time is also an obstacle to the experimental device.

In order to make the simulation closer to the real space environment, the medical team artificially connected the time. That is, when the weightlessness disappears, they stop operating and wait for the next weightlessness. The operation lasted only 8 minutes and completed 32 repeated flights in 3 hours.

This is undoubtedly a major breakthrough in space medicine. At that time, the attending doctor Martin said that if the weightlessness time was increased, they could complete the appendectomy within two hours at most. Even surgery other than vascular surgery is not a problem.

The mysterious outer space is full of unknown temptations. It is like a dark forest, attracting the irresistible desire of human beings to explore.

196 1 year, the Soviet union launched the first manned spacecraft. Gagarin circled the earth once, lasting 108 minutes, and then returned to the earth safely.

The first man into space, Gagarin.

This was already exciting news that sensationalized the whole world at that time. And people's ambition to explore the universe is getting bigger and bigger. The frequency and time for astronauts to fly into space will gradually increase.

At present, the record holder of the longest space flight time in human history is Lery poliakov. He started a flight at 1994. He stayed in the Mir space station * 400 kilometers away from the Earth for 437 consecutive days. This time is enough for humans to fly from the earth to Mars.

The dream of flying to Mars seems to be only one step away from realization. But this step contains many difficulties that have not yet been overcome. Not to mention the technical difficulty of navigation design. Manned mission to mars is expected to take 2-5 years, or longer.

The long road is full of accidents and dangers. How to ensure the health of astronauts?

* Note: The Mir space station is an orbital space station built by the Soviet Union, and it is the first space research center that human beings can live in for a long time.

Oral examination of astronauts

NASA has set strict health standards for astronauts. They must pass a test standard similar to that of the army. For example, blood pressure should be lower than 140/90 (normal for ordinary people is 120/80).

In addition to participating in aviation training for two years before the mission, you need to keep physical exercise during the mission. However, despite strong physical fitness, the steep space environment has not spared human beings.

High vacuum, strong radiation, microgravity and large temperature difference in space are precious resources that are hard to obtain on earth. However, this is also an invisible human killer.

Humans have finally developed an aviation suit, which can ensure breathing under vacuum conditions and isolate the dangers of temperature, pressure and radiation to a certain extent. Physically, subtle changes are still happening quietly.

Some strange things have happened in space that can't be imagined on earth. For example, it is not surprising to call people "brain water" in space. About 60% of the liquid in the human body will flow back to the chest and head under weightlessness.

The blood vessels in the head and chest need more blood to function. At this time, under the complex action of hormones, the plasma volume and red blood cell volume decrease. Therefore, astronauts usually have the characteristics of hypovolemia and cardiovascular dysfunction.

Due to the lack of conventional anti-gravity ability, the bones and muscle tissues that support the human body will also shrink.

Although human beings have become fragile, bacteria are very adapted to survive in space. Due to the lack of gravity, the surface area of interaction between bacteria in space and antibacterial drugs such as antibiotics becomes smaller. At the same time, they will also grow small bubbles on the outer membrane as shields.

This not only makes them reproduce faster than on earth, but also enhances their toxicity. And the resistance to antibiotics has also increased by one level.

As the control group of E.coli on the earth, the space experimental group is on the right, and the outer membrane vesicles are obviously enlarged and shrunk.

For example, under the action of gentamicin sulfate, Escherichia coli showed stronger viability in space. Compared with the earth experiment, the number of cells increased by 13 times, the outer membrane thickened by 25%~43%, and the volume decreased by 73%. The dangerous environment is a great challenge to the human immune system.

Traumatic disease is the biggest test. In the case of muscle atrophy and bone degeneration, even simple exercise becomes unsafe. I want to get out of the capsule and plan to walk in space in the dark. But inadvertently caused a pathological fracture of the mass.

* Note: Pathological fracture refers to the destruction of bone structure caused by tumor or osteomyelitis, and fracture will occur after minor trauma. Tumors usually need resection.

Fracture is still a trivial matter, but the sudden onset of appendicitis will not feel so good. Even with professional doctors present, they can't do anything about weightlessness. At this time, the body fluid flowing out of the abdominal cavity may soon fill the small spacecraft. And intestines and other internal organs floating in the air is a terrible scene.

If this happens unfortunately in the lunar exploration program, returning to earth for treatment will delay treatment for two or three days. But if you encounter this unfortunate thing in the Mars exploration mission, it is almost equivalent to getting an incurable disease. Because it takes about eight months to return to Earth from Mars.

It takes a long time for ordinary people to recover after eight months of microgravity. Don't talk about flying sick, you may not even be able to return to the earth. And the cost of a voyage is very expensive, and it really can't stand the toss.

Although in the past 50 years of space flight, there has never been any surgical trauma. However, James Antaki, a professor of biomedicine, believes that it is necessary to carry out space medical research as soon as possible before the danger comes.

In fact, as early as 199 1, surgeon Mark Campbell performed the first space operation on rabbits. At this time, during the construction of the space station, he failed to catch up with this craze. So the operation is also carried out on the microgravity plane.

Anesthetized rabbit

After opening the rabbit's carotid artery, the spherical blood was as violent as being shot by a gun. At the same time, there was a dome-shaped blood on the top of the incision. As Campbell continued to enlarge the incision, the blood flow remained almost unchanged.

The first space operation by human beings clearly revealed the existing problems. Later generations also continued their research and experiments on this basis.

Vascular surgery, which was once worried, now has a solution. In the vacuum of space, blood usually splashes more than on the earth. The most serious thing is that they recombine at the wound without gravity, but the surface tension still exists. So that it is difficult for doctors to see the actual trauma.

At the same time, the risk of bacterial infection is greatly increased.

Nasa astronauts conducted bacteria tests on the space station.

Professor Antaki thought of an opposite method. There is a wound on the epidermis, but he blocks the wound. It is his trick to find another way. He also practiced his idea on a microgravity plane.

He sealed the patient's wound with a bubble full of salt water. It's like putting a transparent airtight shell on a patient's wound. Doctors can see the vascular system through it. It doesn't matter if he can't see clearly. At this time, he used laparoscopy to observe internal injuries.

He made a small incision of 1cm at a suitable position, and put the micro-instrument into the patient's body for laparoscopic surgery. Under the supervision and operation of doctors, the surgical site was mechanically repaired by laparoscopy.

This minimally invasive surgery method opens a window for space surgery.

If the space infirmary has a comfortable operating table, flashing lights and eccentric multifunctional medical equipment in science fiction movies, then this minor injury will naturally be solved. But the reality is that the medical facilities on the International Space Station are not much different from public indoor swimming pools. The vigilance against potential medical disasters is always worrying.

For non-invasive tumor resection, the above minimally invasive surgery is also needed. The problems of slow wound healing and difficult fluid control after large incision are avoided.

In space, if the amount of bleeding per minute of the injured exceeds 100 ml, I'm afraid no amount of effort will help. Therefore, using this machine for minimally invasive surgery can stabilize the operation. Smaller and thinner openings than manual operation also avoid the outflow of body fluids and the entry and exit of bacteria.

In addition to minimally invasive technology, humans have also studied many feasible space surgery schemes. For example, 3D printing technology is a good choice for the problem that the surgical device is too big to be installed on the spacecraft.

Upload the equipment structure data, and download and print it immediately when necessary. If there is no chance to use it, it will save the cost and space of carrying heavy instruments in the spacecraft. Even drugs that are afraid of expiring because they have been in space for too long are also applicable.

Upload device data

The development of surgery on earth has experienced a gradual process from scratch. However, after the operation site was changed to space, the same operation encountered different obstacles.

A game between ambition to explore the universe and technology is quietly unfolding. Space medicine is one of the difficulties at present.