Chapter 281 - Cooperation (Part 1 of 4) (1/2)
“The knot is too tight and there’s too little room for excision.” Department Chief Sun prodded the necrotizing gallbladder with a hemostatic clamp.
“Do not untangle the knot. Necrosis has been going on for too long. If gangrenous tissue enters the hepatic duct, it’ll be problematic,” Zheng Ren said matter-of-factly.
“But…” Department Chief Sun glared in frustration at the twisted knot that held the cystic duct, blood vessels and hepatic duct.
There was no extra s.p.a.ce at the base of the gallbladder to perform a resection and suture. If they forced it, the suture would likely unravel. Hence, they could not proceed with the cholecystectomy without untangling the knot.
“May I have a go?” Zheng Ren asked politely.
Department Chief Sun was elated to hear the offer and nodded.
That was why he had called the man here in the first place, after all.
This was a surgical consultation.
The practice of operating without the lead surgeon’s approval was frowned upon. Such a move could soil the relations.h.i.+p between two professionals.
Once the green light had been given, Zheng Ren went to change and scrub in.
When he returned in a surgical gown, Department Chief Sun called out to him. “Little Zheng, come over here.”
Zheng Ren hesitated for a moment before approaching.
The surgeon’s position offered the best view of the surgical site. However, under certain special circ.u.mstances, the surgeon’s view was obstructed and the a.s.sistant would help from their position.
Department Chief Sun stepped aside and Zheng Ren unabashedly stepped into the lead surgeon’s spot, studying the gallbladder before him.
The chief had started off with a laparoscopic cholecystectomy but switched to a laparotomy when he noticed the atypicality.
However, the problem had remained unsolved even after he opened up the abdomen. This was the first time he had witnessed gallbladder torsion of this severity. It looked like a fried dough twist from 18th Street.
If they had started the surgery before necrosis had set in, the surgery would have been much easier. All he would have had to do was untangle the knotted organs.
Unfortunately, a few hours had been enough for the gallbladder to become gangrenous. It was saturated with fluids, which meant they could not untangle the knot; the slightest movement could tear apart the organ.
The consequences of that were dire.
No one spoke in the operating room, not from Director Xiao’s presence, but the complexity of the patient’s condition.
A lead surgeon would usually be in a bad mood upon encountering such a complicated case. Anyone attempting to joke in the operating room would be on the receiving end of a clamp missile.
Zheng Ren extended his hand and waited. Then, he realized his mistake and softly said, “Hemostatic clamp.”
The tool was pa.s.sed to him, but the force with which it was pressed into his palm discomfited him.
He started with blunt separation of the swelling surrounding the gallbladder. Department Chief Sun watched with trepidation, as the thin tissue walls were easily perforated.
Being too gentle would accomplish little.
Excessive strength would cause irreversible damage.
“Scissors,” Zheng Ren said a few minutes later, his hand outstretched.
A pair of scissors was given to him.
Zheng Ren looked at them and placed them by the patient’s thigh. “Blunt scissors.”
The scrub nurse jolted and quickly handed him the requested tool.
Zheng Ren sighed internally. He strongly preferred his own scrub nurse.
However, asking for Xie Yiren would be too impudent, so it was best he put up with his lot.
“Move the retractor higher.”
“Pull harder.”
“Here. Hemostatic clamp. Careful with the pressure.”
Zheng Ren constantly coached the a.s.sistant throughout the surgery. The time it took for the a.s.sistant to s.h.i.+ft the retractors seemed longer than the actual surgery itself.
Director Xiao shook his head. Department Chief Sun and his a.s.sistant had utterly humiliated themselves in front of a foreign professor.
He would have a word with them after the surgery.