I'm not very knowledgeable about this, so I was wondering, when is it a good idea to cauterize a wound, or is there only a certain type of wound that should be cauterized? And after a wound's been cauterized, how long does it take for it to heal? For example, if a character is stabbed in the side or the arm or whatever and their wound is cauterized would they be able to move and walk around the next day/couple days? Or would they have mobility problems or be bedridden? Any help appreciated. Thanks.
Basically in a modern setting only if you're a doctor . In a survival or ancient setting, only if you can't stop bleeding by other means Cauterizing is a fancy name for burning, to a) stop the bleeding and b) burn out the infection.... it used to be popular treatment for bites by a rabid dog. b) in general doesn't work. So in practice its basically used if you've got someone who's amputated a hand or a finger or whatever and blood is spurting every time you release the tourniquet. So you shove the effected appendage into a bucket of hot tar (or jam a white hot poker into the wound if more appropriate). You can also forget about a character doing it to themselves, if they are losing that much blood they won't have time to get organised. A top tip is that it has to be very very hot (in modern medicine its done to individual blood vessels with lasers) … if you just shove your amputated stump in a fire, you'll just suffer burns while you are bleeding to death. In terms of whether they'll be able to move the next day it depends on how tough they are and how much they need to.. in modern society they are likely to need several days rest.. if its move or die they probably can. There is also the question of secondary infection - both the wound and the burn are subject to sepsis. If you are operating in a place or time where antibiotics aren't a thing, you could look at disinfecting the wound with spirits (which will also hurt like a bastard), and poulticing with mouldy bread or with sugar
Romans used vinegar as an antiseptic wash. Their military medicine is given high marks for what they were able to do with what they had. As to cauterization, @big soft moose said it all.
While if done properly it will stop the bleeding, but it would still hamper mobility to some degree depending on where the wound is. So yeah it will still say cause someone to limp even though they aren't going to bleed to death, cause cautery in a quick pinch doesn't stop the fact that it is a painful (typically temporary fix), until they get much more proper treatment. And like it has been stated infection is still a concern despite the fact they are not bleeding anymore.
A character's own will will do what they can to handle blood, this is what can impact a full and fast recovery. adrenaline helps most... as well as the skills of the fictional human/ bear/ even if they are real, at the time. Since I got here, I have been looking at empty space and suns
Cauterizing a stab wound I'd say is really only necessary if lets say the character is out in the wild with no bandages or medicinal stuff like that. Even then though, cauterizing may not fix any internal bleeding and could actually make it worse if they closed off the exit of the wound and trapped the bleeding inside. As for moving around, it kinda depends. If the wound is on the arm? Sure I could believe it. But, if it's on the upper body or legs I'd say they need to rest because they're dealing with internal damage as well as an external 2nd up to 3rd degree burn.
