Air date: July 5, 2009

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Time now for this week's Sound Medicine Checkup.

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to do heart surgery? Or perform an autopsy. Thanks to YouTube, you can watch these and other operations in action. But would you want to?

Jeremy Shere has more ...

For most people, I think, the human body is essentially mysterious. We know that beneath the skin there are bones and organs, but because we normally don't see these things, unless you're a surgeon, the inside of the body is terre incognita -- an unknown landscape.

But do a Google or YouTube search for surgery, and you'll get thousands of links to videos of surgeons doing their thing. Like this one of lap-band obesity surgery I found on a website called OR-Live.

"What Dr. Sebastion is doing right here is opening up a small window on what is the patient's right side of the stomach, that solid organ that's coming into view right there where the grasper is ..."

We, the viewers, we're right in there, inside the stomach, watching as a scalpel and scissors slice and snip at the wet, elastic tissue. And it's incredible. That's what a stomach really looks like. This is what surgeons do.

But other videos I saw seem more voyeuristic . On the website of Wired Magazine I found a story called "10 Gory Surgical Triumphs on YouTube." It includes several clips ... Like one of surgery to remove a fish hook snagged deep in a human eyeball.

To be honest, I'm not what to make of this. So I asked my friend Steve Mendelson, who's an orthopedic surgeon in Detroit, what he thinks.

"Truthfully, I think it's a wonderful thing for the layman to be able to have access to a surgical experience. They can watch, they can see, they can learn without having to go through the trauma to your body of being up all hours or the risks or actually contaminating someone. It's a very wonderful opportunity for you to go travel in a different sphere and I think it's great."

Maybe. But I still feel a bit queasy about watching some stranger's body flayed open for my entertainment. Or is it for my education? I'm not sure. If you want to decide for yourself, check the Wired surgery videos.

Although I should caution you: some of them are truly gory.

I'm Jeremy Shere.

Additional Resources:

• Wired Magazine's article, "10 Gory Surgical Triumphs on YouTube."
• Many surgery videos online are indeed meant for education, like these at the Riley Hospital for Children and UC San Diego Medical Center.

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