Trauma Center: Under the Knife

Trauma Center: Under the Knife is a surgical game for the Nintendo DS. In the game, you play as Derek Stiles, a doctor whom has just completed residency. The story will play itself out, but you will need to complete the operations in order for the story to advance. Be warned though, this is one of the hardest games you will play in your life. If you haven't bought this game yet, be sure to reserve an extra DS. People with short tempers will surely be chucking their DS at a wall.

Surgical tools
These are the surgical tools you will be using to perform surgery, in no particular order.

Scalpel
This is by far one of the most used surgical tools. It is used for making the incision, removing tumors, and anything else involving cutting.

Ultrasound
This tool is used mainly for finding tumors and objects that are beneath the surface of organs. Simply tap on the touch screen to use it.

Needle
The needle is used for suturing large cuts and for keeping things together. To use, drag in a zig-zag path along the wound. If you did it correctly, the wound should disapear and a success message will appear.

Laser
Ah, our good ol' friend the laser. The laser is your friend when it comes to tiny tumors and burning parasites. Just put down your stylus where you need it, and the little light beam will show up.

Antibiotic gel
This is dubbed as a miracle gel since it seems it can do anything. It is usually used for very small cuts and sterilizing incisions. One of it's secret functions is it's ability to remover blood from normal cuts and restore vitals. If you drag the gel along a cut, it will remove the blood from it, giving you a better view of it, and as it removes blood, it will restore vitals!

Drain
The drains only real purpose, is to remove blood from pooled areas. Tap your stylus in the pool of blood, and then drag it up along the drain line. repeat if neccesary.

Forceps
Most people at the begining will call these tweezers but you will eventually call them forceps. Forceps are used in removing foriegn bodies mostly. When you use them, a pan will appear. After you have removed it, drag it over to the pan and let go.

Hands
The hands are mostly noted for its companion, the healing touch which will be explained later. The hands are used to speed up the process of binding the synthetic membrane to the body and for cardiac arrest.

Syringes
You will find yourself tapping the syringes quite a lot when you get further into the game because of their useful function. First, In all operations that you can use the syringe, you will have the stabilizer. When injected, it raises the vitals. Then, there are medications. These are operation specific. To use them, tap your stylus on the medication you want and drag up. Then tap anywhere on the operation and hold it there to inject.

Bandages
Bandages are only used for one purpose. You drag it across the incision line at the end of the operation to finish the operation.

Operations
Difficulty rating

1:Easy

2:Slightly difficult

3:Difficult

4:Very hard

5:Insane

Standard procedure
Difficulty rating 1

First, you will need to select the needle icon. Once you have selected it, follows along the cut in a zig-zag pattern. If you can't do anything, tap the CALL button on the upper-right corner of the screen. Then repeat. Now select the forceps and put your stylus down on the piece of glass. Now slowly move your stylus away from the blood and a pan will appear. Drag the peice of glass onto the tray and drop it. Now repeat. Select the antibiotic gel and spread it over the smaller wounds. Now, a guideline will appear. Spread antibiotic gel over it and then use the scalpel to cut swiftly along the line. The arm will open up, and there will be 3 shards of glass. Remove them and heal the wound with antibiotic gel.Then, suture the incision and disinfect it with healing jelly. Now drag a bandage along the line and the operation should be finished.

Standard procedure 2
Difficulty rating 1

Use the antibiotic gel to disinfect the guideline, and then cut along it with the scalpel. You will see the stomach. Select the ultrasound, and tap around the lower left area of the stomach Once you tap on the tumor, a shadow should appear. Use the scalpel to cut across it and it will open up. Take the drain, tap the tumor and drag up along the tube until the cytoplasm is removed. Then, a guideline around the tumor will appear. Simply cut it, and use the forceps to put it into the tray. Use the forceps again to drag the synthetic membrane on to the wound. Now spread antibiotic gel over it until an ok sign shows up. Then use the hands to meld it by rubbing it in a circular motion. Then, suture the incision and disinfect it with antibiotic gel. Finally, drag the bandage across it.

A Farewell
Difficulty rating 2

First, disinfect and cut the guideline. You will zoom into the pancreas. Select the syringe and take some of the blue anti-inflammatory. Inject it into the 2 white spots to remove the swelling. There are 3 tumors. 2 in the left area and one in the lower right area. Watch the vitals in the upper right corner, if it gets to below 30, use the syringe to iject stabilizer. Use ultrasound to locate them, and cut, drain, excise, and remove for each one. Then, use the forceps to get the membrane on the wounds, then use antibiotic and the hands on each of them. Suture the incision, disinfect, and bandage.

Singing the blues
Difficulty rating 2

First, do the usual disinfect and cut, and you will zoom into the operation. There will be an area with a pool of blood. Select the magnifier (in the same slot as ultrasound). Do NOT draw a circle around the problem area. The game is very picky about it's magnifying symbols and it doesn't recognize circles well. Instead, Draw a C With your stylus. Once you have zoomed in, take the drain and drain the blood. Select the laser and quickly run it over a group of polyps. Quickly switch to anitbiotic gel and spread it over the bleeding spots. If blood clogs the view again, drain it and gel the wounds. Repeat until all the polyps in the area are gone, and zoom out with yet another backward C Repeat this for all other polyp infected areas and then suture the incision, disinfect, and bandage.

A real doctor
Difficulty rating 2

Disinfect the guideline and cut it. You will zoom into the intestines. Select the anti-inflammatory and inject it into the swelling areas. Use the ultrasound to locate the tumors and then cut, drain, excise, and remove the tumors. Repeat for the other tumors. Take the ultrasound and tap around the screen when Angie asks you to check for any other tumors. Suture the incision, disinfect it, and bandage.

Life or death
Difficulty rating 3

Though the title implies otherwise, this is actually not a hard operation. It is just fast paced and you will need to work swiftly. Be careful though, The max vital is 30 and he has multiple wounds which bring it down. If the vitals round 15, inject stabilizer. First, apply antibiotic gel on the blue bar until it turns green. Select the hands and keep it on the green bar to revive him. His vitals will rise to 30. Suture the large wounds, remove the glass shards, and use antibiotic gel for the smaller wounds. Disinfect the guideline and cut it. There will be multiple glass shards in the pericardium. Use the forceps to take them out. Bring out only 1 or 2 shards before switching to the gel since as the wounds are in the heart, they will bleed rapidly and bring down vitals.Once, again, inject stablilizer if the vitals round 15. Repeat this process until all the glass is removed. A large shard of glass will emerge. Carefully take it out with the forceps and place it in the tray. Suture the wound. The myocardium will split open and you will go into the Healing touch. The speed that vitals drop will slow down and the screen will turn into a grey scale image. Quickly suture the wound before he dies. Suture the incision, disinfect it, and bandage.

Dormant Ability
Difficulty rating 2

First, disinfect the guideline and incise. Use the magnifier to zoom in. There will be multiple light grey brown spots in the red vessels. Use the ultrasound on them, then pinch them with the forceps. Cut the area with the scalpel and drain to remove the thrombi. Use the antibiotic gel to heal the wound and repeat for all the other thrombi. The bloodflow will change speeding up the flow of thrombi. Continue removing them using the same process. You will automatically go into the healing touch mode. Once all thrombi are removed, suture the incision, disinfect, and bandage.

Striving for Asclepius
Difficulty rating 1

Select the hand icon and then tap on it again for the healing touch. Draw a star along the guideline. Repeat this until the operation is finished. After this operation, you will be able to use the healing touch in an operation by selecting the hand and tapping it again. Then draw a star.

Awakening
Difficulty rating 5

This is a very difficult operation and do not get mad if you can't get through it with your first few tries. This will be one of the first very difficult operations such as GUILT. Disinfect the guideline and cut it. There will be a bulging artery. Zoom into it. Inject it with the sedative until a guideline appears around it. Cut it, remove it with the forceps, and drain the area. Use the forceps again to drag the artery pieces together and suture it together. Zoom out and more will appear. Zoom in so that you can see all the aneurisms and treat all of them. Repeat. Once there are 5 or 6 of them, use the healing touch and try to treat them all fast. Be warned though, you will need to keep the bulge of the aneurisms DOWN! If they get too big, it will explode and drop the vitals around 40 points!

Just Let Me Die
Difficulty rating 2

Disinfect the guideline and cut it, as usual. First, you will want to take care of the smaller wounds. Suture them all, keeping an eye on the vitals. Then, raise her vitals to the max and select the drain. Drain the blood from the large wound, select the forceps, and pinch one side of the wound. Drag it over to the other side until a "Ok" sign appears then suture the wound. Do this to the other 2 wounds. Then suture, disinfect, and bandage.

Please Let Me Live
Difficulty rating 3

Disinfect the guideline and cut it. The layout will be similar to the last operation. Follow the guide for Just Let Me Die until a cut appears. Use the ultrasound to find the parasite. It will be a black shadow and resemble a manta ray. Use the scalpel to cut it out. Now, use the laser to burn it. There is no need to treat the wounds now. Just keep the vitals up and you will be fine. You will need to burn it 2 times. Then, more cuts will appear. Repeat the process. Then, treat all the wounds once you are sure there are no more parasites. Now, as if the operation wasn't exciting enough, 3 giant cuts in the shape of a '* will appear. Use the ultrasound once again, to find the parasite. It is much larger than its counterparts, but is harder to remove. Each time you cut it out and burn it with the laser, it will burrow back into the organ and you will need to find it with ultrasound again. Once the large parasite is dead, treat all the wounds, suture, disinfect, bandage.

For Everyone's Sake
Difficulty rating 2

Disinfect and cut the incision line. There will be an incision line on the heart. Disinfect and cut that too. About now, the patient will undergo cardiac arrest. Angie will defibrilate her, and a blue bar will appear similar to the one in Life or Death. Apply antibiotic gel, and use the hands to massage the heart. This will probably happen again further in the operation, and will use the same treatment. Now, drain the blood from the incision. You will need to cut along the three guidelines to excise the valve. Remove it with the forceps, and place the artificial valve in its place. Suture it in, then suture the heart incision. Suture the incision, disinfect and bandage.