How Surgery Affects Your Body: Anatomy and Immunity

teresaamadrigal
May 16, 2025
2 min read

Updated: Jun 4, 2025

When you think of surgery, you probably imagine a team of doctors removing something harmful like a tumor or repairing something broken. But surgery doesn’t just affect the spot they work on; it can also change the way your body works and heals. Let’s break down what happens during and after surgery, and how it can affect both anatomy and your immune system.

Anatomy: What Changes?

Cutting Through Tissues: To reach the area that needs treatment, surgeons often cut through skin, fat, muscle, and sometimes nerves or blood vessels. Even though they’re careful, this can change how things feel or move afterward. For example:

Scar Tissue: After healing, the body forms scar tissue, which can feel tight or make movement a bit different.

Nerve Damage: Sometimes, small nerves get cut, causing numbness or tingling.

Changes in Lymphatic Drainage: If lymph nodes are removed (like during cancer surgery), fluid can build up and cause swelling; this is called lymphedema.

Immunity: How Surgery Affects Defense

Inflammation:

Surgery is a controlled injury, so your body naturally reacts by sending in white blood cells and other immune defenses to help heal the area. This is a good thing, but it also temporarily diverts your immune system’s attention.

Risk of Infection:

Because surgery creates an open wound (even if it's a small one), it gives germs a chance to enter. That’s why doctors give you antibiotics before and after to lower the risk.

Lymph Node Removal:

If your surgery involves removing lymph nodes, your body’s local immune defenses may be weakened in that area. Lymph nodes are like tiny filters that help fight infection. Without them, your arm or chest area might be a bit more prone to swelling and infection. This is all only temporary.