The Godfather of Surgery

A few days later, Nie Shun'e was transferred from the ICU back to the general ward.

Her condition after the operation is very stable. She can already eat liquid diets such as rice soup. The original yellow color on her face has slowly faded away. The pain in her abdomen is gone now. The remaining pain from the surgical incision is treated with standard analgesia. After treatment, I basically didn’t feel much pain.

Theoretically, tumor recurrence is certain, but since the tumor is so cleanly removed, there shouldn't be any major problems in the short term.

For Nie Shun'e, she no longer cares about whether she relapses. She just needs to live one day at a time and live well every day.

The "charity organization" sent someone to buy flower baskets and nutritional supplements to see Nie Shun'e. The representative sent said that they could help Nie Shun'e apply for a charitable aid fund, and the amount was relatively large, up to 100,000.

This matter was rejected by Nie Shun'e. She is now living a decent life and can support herself without needing help from others.

She has a soft mouth and short hands for taking others. Even if she receives charity funding, Nie Shun'e always feels that she owes others. She is used to solving her own problems by herself.

Yang Ping came to the imperial capital Xiehe, where he was stationed. In his absence, the 45-bed department was managed by Song Yun, who was the de facto acting director.

The work at Xie Xie is nothing more than ward rounds, lectures, and teaching surgeries.

You don’t know it, but you’re shocked when you look at it. After the ward rounds, Yang Ping counted the number of patients waiting for surgery. These guys admitted more than thirty new patients and were waiting for surgery.

I have only been here for a few days and have done so many surgeries. These guys are also crazy and working hard. Song Yun chuckled: "Professor, I'm sorry!"

"How many channels are there?"

Yang Ping asked. He knew that these guys wanted to use these few days to do more surgeries.

"There are two special stations. Kong Weiquan and I have one station each. Professor, you have to take turns to guide. There are also several surgeries where you have to perform the surgery yourself. We can't handle it at all." Song Yun said with a smile.

With so many patients, the ward rounds and pre-operative discussions would take a whole day, and some lectures would be interspersed with the pre-operative discussions. Today, it would last until evening.

After the ward check, everyone gathered around the electronic reader to discuss the case.

Other cases were okay. There was a patient with a cervical spine tumor. The tumor almost crossed the spinal cord and he had to undergo two surgeries. It was very troublesome. Yang Ping asked to see this most special case first.

The electronic reader is turned on, and the doctor in charge of the bed calls up the case images.

"Professor, I admitted this patient from the outpatient clinic. He has undergone two operations. The first operation did not remove the tumor, but only fixed the cervical spine. The second operation the doctor planned to remove the tumor, but on the operating table After opening it, it was found that it was impossible to remove it. I didn't know how to operate the knife, so the surgeon gave up the operation and just took some tumor tissue for pathological examination. Now the patient's main problem is pain. The pain in both upper limbs is severe and unbearable. My strength has also decreased, with grade four on the left limb and grade three on the right limb. I have to rely on family members and crutches to support me when I stand. Currently, oral painkillers and methylcobalamin are completely useless.”

Song Yun briefly introduced the ins and outs of this case.

My hands were numb on both sides, my left foot couldn't touch the ground, it felt like stepping on cotton, and the pain was excruciating.

"The tumor invades neck 4, 5, and 6, both inside and outside the marrow." Yang Ping said while looking at the images.

"Pathology was taken during both operations, and the postoperative pathological diagnosis was hemangioblastoma."

Everyone was discussing the case. Director Zuo from the Vascular Surgery Department and Director Wen from the Cardiac Surgery Department came over with two students carrying a basket of fruits. They heard that Yang Ping had arrived, so they took the time to come over and take a look.

Director Zuo knew Yang Ping. At that time, Yang Ping was performing a spinal tumor surgery at Union Medical College, demonstrating the leak-free en bloc resection of spinal tumors. Because the tumor aorta was adherent, the aortic vessel wall became thin after the tumor was separated, and an interventional implant was required during the operation. The interventional surgery was performed by Director Zuo, so the two of them knew each other once.

The medical circle is sometimes very small. The 13 CNS papers and Yang Ping's group cardiac bypass surgery in 301 were all spread in the cardiovascular surgery department in the imperial capital.

Director Wen has a special case in his hands. A little boy who is just over one month old was diagnosed with Kawasaki disease coronary artery disease and needs coronary artery bypass grafting. Coronary artery bypass grafting is inherently a high-precision surgery. There are very few hospitals in the country that can carry out it. Children Coronary artery bypass grafting has been carried out even less nationwide, especially for such small cases, as there is currently no precedent.

I heard that Yang Ping also did research in cardiac surgery, so Director Wen came to talk to Yang Ping, but Director Wen didn't know Yang Ping, but Director Zuo did.

Cardiac surgery and great vascular surgery are originally one unit, collectively called cardiovascular surgery. However, large hospitals like Union Medical College separate them in order to strive for excellence.

"Come here, bring anything else." Song Yun asked someone to take the fruit over and asked the two directors to take a seat.

"This is Director Wen of our cardiac surgery department, and this is our Professor Yang."

Director Zuo helped make introductions for them.

"You are so young. It seems we are really old." Director Wen said wittily when he saw Yang Ping.

"Thank you two directors. If you have any advice, the two directors are here." Yang Ping didn't beat around the bush. There must be a reason for people to come here with fruits.

"I won't disturb you, will I?"

Director Zuo saw the images on the electronic reader and knew that they were just discussing the case. He was a little embarrassed for the sudden interruption.

"It's okay. We are discussing cases. We can discuss it anytime." Yang Ping said.

Song Yun and Kong Weiquan had already given two glasses of water to the two directors. Other doctors were surrounding them, wanting to hear what the two directors were doing.

Director Wen also wasted time: "Well, I saw a child with Kawasaki disease in the outpatient clinic. He was only one month old. The opening of the left anterior descending coronary artery was completely occluded due to vasculitis. He currently relies on the collateral branches of the other two coronary arteries. Blood vessels supply blood. In this case, myocardial infarction may occur at any time, so coronary artery bypass grafting is needed to save life. Considering that the child is relatively young and the height and weight are too small, the operation must be performed with a non-stop beating heart bypass, which lasts for one month. The coronary arteries of children are very thin, and it is very difficult to do it on a heart that is constantly beating. There has never been a precedent for this. The people in Shanghai who have done more surgeries in this area are in Shanghai. The youngest age they have done is 14. About 1 month old, we heard that you are very good at anastomosing small blood vessels, so we came over to see if there was anything we could do.''

We are all academics. It is simple and straightforward. Communication is very easy and the service is not tiring at all.

The diameter of the coronary arteries of a one-month-old infant is about 1 millimeter, and may be even thinner. It will be more troublesome in premature infants.

However, the operation of anastomosis of blood vessels requires only a suitable microscope and needle and thread. There are no blood vessels that Yang Ping cannot handle. It is a unique trick for debut.

''should be no problem. "

Yang Ping felt that it was not difficult, it was his old profession.

Director Wen was very happy to receive Yang Ping's reply, which meant that this operation could be performed. He had been worried that it would be too difficult to anastomose such a thin coronary artery.

"This child needs to keep jumping down for surgery." Director Wen reminded Yang Ping.

Because in Yang Ping's surgery such as replantation of severed fingers, the anastomotic blood vessels are fixed, which is different from the anastomosis on a beating heart.

It is more difficult to anastomose small blood vessels on a beating heart. Yang Ping must explain it clearly to avoid any misunderstanding.

"It's not a big problem. When will it be done? If you need help, just let me know." Yang Ping said simply.

"Well, the family members are waiting anxiously. The sooner the surgery is done, the better, otherwise there is a possibility of myocardial infarction at any time. Originally we planned to ask our colleagues from Shanghai to do the surgery together, but they have no experience in such small cases. We are not sure enough. If Professor Yang can help provide technical support during the anastomosis of the blood vessels, the success of the operation will be much greater. Thank you Professor Yang."

Coronary artery bypass grafting was originally a surgical method to treat adults. In recent years, it has been used to treat children with Kawasaki disease and severe coronary artery disease. However, there are not many such surgeries performed in China. The most mature one is Modu Children's Medical Center, which took the lead in domestic A pediatric cardiomyopathy and heart failure diagnosis and treatment center has been established. This center has specially set up a Kawasaki disease diagnosis and treatment team composed of cardiology, cardiac surgery, anesthesiology, and radiology. So far, more than 10 cases of coronary artery bypass grafting have been successfully performed in children. Several cases of interventional treatment have also been carried out.

"We will arrange the surgery as soon as possible in the next few days. Please don't disturb Professor Yang then."

Director Wen and Director Zuo were very polite and did not say anything unnecessary. They were busy discussing the cases.

Yang Ping continued to discuss the case with everyone. Should this patient with a spinal tumor undergo surgery or not? The risk of surgery is very high. No hospital will accept him now. If he does not have surgery, he can still move his limbs, but after the surgery, he is likely to be in a high position. He is paraplegic and cannot move his limbs at all. If this causes complications such as lung infection, he may not live long.

"If the tumor is removed, the spinal cord will also be transected, right?"

Kong Weiquan said worriedly.

This kind of case is thankless. Very few doctors are willing to poke this hornet's nest. It is almost certain that the probability of high paraplegia after surgery is very high. Since surgery will make the condition worse, why do we need surgery? Therefore, surgery is completely meaningless and not worth it. Risky, in other words - no cure!

"Yes, you see, the neck 4 section has already crossed the spinal cord. If the tumor is removed, it will easily cause high paraplegia, and hemangioblastoma is easy to relapse. If it is removed this time, it will easily relapse soon after the operation, but we are doctors All I can say is that we should do our best. It is impossible to completely cure him, but we should see if we can find a way to reduce his pain through surgery, at least relieve the pain and improve the patient's quality of life."

Yang Ping was thinking about how to perform surgery on this patient.

Song Yun said with embarrassment: "I am the one who caused you trouble. When I was in the outpatient clinic, I saw that the patient was in great pain. Other hospitals did not accept him, so I wanted to admit him. Even if I did not perform the operation, I would help him. Treat symptoms and relieve some pain.”

Yang Ping comforted Song Yun: "How can you say it's causing trouble? Aren't we all facing trouble? If Xiehe doesn't accept him, where will this patient go? Is there no place to go? Let me think about it."

"Some doctors recommend radiotherapy?" Song Yun added information.

Yang Ping shook his head and immediately denied: "Never do radiotherapy. Once radiotherapy is given, the local spinal cord exposed to radiotherapy will be edematous. This edema will aggravate the condition, cause more severe neurological symptoms, and cause the severe high paraplegia just mentioned. If the edema can spontaneously It's okay to subside, and the spinal cord function can slowly return to before radiotherapy. If the edema cannot subside on its own, it will cause permanent high paraplegia, so radiotherapy of the spinal cord must be done with caution."

"I was wondering if the tumor around the nerve root could be cut away, which would relieve the patient's pain. His pain was caused by the tumor irritating the nerve root."

"The purpose of surgery is not necessarily a radical cure. It can be to relieve symptoms, prolong life, improve quality of life, etc."

Song Yun understood what Yang Ping meant: "Let's do a more detailed and precise positioning of the source of the pain?"

"Yes, this is of great significance for surgery."

"But - look, these nerve roots are all invaded by tumors. How to remove the tumors? They are all in the dead corners."

"So what? We are Xiehe, and we are the last place for patients. No matter whether you can do it or not, you have to do it. There is no way out." Song Yun said firmly.

"Do I need to remove the internal fixation from the original surgery?"

"Don't dismantle it, keep it! Once dismantled, the cervical spine will be unstable, and we have to re-fix it. Don't do repeated work. Look at the cervical cone 4, there are already signs of pathological compression fractures."

"If the internal fixation is not removed, it will block the surgical operation. The exit of the nerve root is a dead end, and there is still internal fixation, so the surgery cannot be performed." Kong Weiquan has always been worried about this, and he gets a headache when he sees tumors in these locations.

Everyone was discussing the case, when a gust of fragrance came, and a beautiful figure appeared at the door of the doctor's office. It was Qiu Ruo, a flower in the operating room. She was dressed very beautifully today, and she was obviously carefully dressed.

"The beauty from our operating room is treating us to dinner today." Song Yun said to Yang Ping.

Yang Ping was thinking about the method of surgery and didn't pay much attention to Qiu Ruo at the door. He just said "Oh."

"Then let's eat first. We'll discuss it after eating. This patient will definitely need surgery. If not, the pain caused by the nerve roots will be very uncomfortable. He will probably roll on the bed in pain."

Qiu Ruo, a nurse in the operating room, would wait for Yang Ping to come to Xiehe every month. She really fell in love with Yang Ping. From the first time they met, she couldn't help but love him.

She told her best friend Xiao Su about this matter. Before Xiao Su could speak, she told Xiao Su that no matter what, she would bravely pursue Yang Ping. Yang Ping was her prince charming and she was satisfied. All her fantasies about her boyfriend, if Xiao Su dares to stop him, she will use Xiao Su’s trick,

Xiao Su could only say: You will die in society.

Qiu Ruo said: Just wait and see, I will definitely be able to capture him.