To me, the smell of a Bovie searing tissue is more disturbing intellectually than it is viscerally. It’s the bacterial odors that incite involuntary disgust in me. Opening up abscesses—many of which I’ve done in a totally outpatient setting—have made me instantaneously nauseated. The stench of Pseudomonas and of Staph are instantly recognizable to me. I’m gagging just thinking about it.

Surgery’s Open Secret: It Smells • 2016 Apr 29 • Sarah Laskow • Atlas Obscura

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