164 Second Time (1/2)

Ling Ran rushed straight to the operating theater.

Lu Wenbin, who had been pretending to be strong all this while, immediately let out a breath of relief. He quickly made his report. ”The patient's skin temperature is lower by 36.5 degrees Fahrenheit. There is positive swelling. I used—”

”Did he smoke?” Ling Ran was not surprised.

Nicotine dependence in a smoker was incredibly strong. The difficulty in quitting smoking was as hard as trying to quit opium. A normal person might still fail to quit smoking even if he or she has a strong subjective desire to quit.

A smoker who received finger replantation might not expect his finger to be amputated, and so, was not prepared to quit smoking. There would always be people who would not obey the doctor's requests for them to quit. It was also because of this that many orthopedists in Europe and America refuse to perform finger replantation on smokers.

Lu Wenbin did not expect Ling Ran's reaction to be so mild. He nodded and continued, ”I heard that he smoked twice. This time, he only took a puff.”

”It doesn't matter how many times he smoked.” Ling Ran observed the patient's condition before he asked, ”Has the patient's family signed the operation consent form?”

”Yes. I told them the patient is suspected to have an embolism in the anastomosed section, that's why we'll have to sever the anastomosed section and reconnect the artery. I also told them the risks of a second replantation, but the family insists on keeping the finger.” Lu Wenbin felt rather disheartened. Even if the second reconnection was successful, there was a possibility that blood circulation would not form. If that was the case, the finger's functionality in the future would never be able to compare to how it had been before.

To a resident doctor who only just began performing finger replantation surgeries, and felt rather accomplished because of them, this kind of problem felt even worse than working for twenty hours straight.

But Ling Ran was never someone who showed his emotions on his face. He did not say much and only said, ”Then let's perform the surgery.”

Reconnecting the artery was much easier than performing the finger replantation, it was only a matter of cutting a few sections. To him, the process of determining the location of the embolism and reconnecting the blood vessel was merely a simple job that would last for only half an hour—if he intentionally slowed down his pace.

The last time he performed the finger replantation on this patient, Ling Ran had already considered the possibility of the patient ingesting nicotine. Hence, when he sutured the patient, he sutured another blood vessel to increase the rate of blood circulation in the finger.

This time, Ling Ran would also try his best to protect Mao Penghai's blood vessel, and create sufficient blood circulation for him.

It was just a surgery, but none of the medical staff in the operating theater had the mood to talk.

Thrombosis did not happen instantly. When such a severe case of vascular thrombosis occurred, the conditions of the blood vessel in the amputated finger were no longer hopeful. This was like how, in the possibility where multiple trucks are being unloaded on a public road with heavy traffic, no cars can move.

A body that was damaged multiple times might probably provide more blood platelets under the stimulation of nicotine. From the point of view of research papers, if a rat that was about to receive tail replantation surgery smoked, its adsorption of blood platelets would increase by 10%, but in correspondence, the endothelial cells would have a low growth rate—it would only be one-fifth of what a normal rat would have.

Ling Ran could use surgery to get rid of the thrombosis at the anastomosed section, even clean it up properly, but he must use medicine to deal with the inner parts of the amputated finger's blood vessels.

The biggest difference in medicine and surgery was that, while doctors played a leading role in surgeries, the effects of medicine on a person relied on how much that person could adapt to it.

This was just like how people used banned drugs in sports. Some people would swiftly gain huge breakthroughs once they used these drugs; some did not have significant changes; some even start to fall behind on their results. In the end, it all boiled down to how different people had different reactions to drugs.

Take, for another example, heparin, which was used as an anticoagulant. People generally had quite a good reaction towards it, but there would always be some who would react remarkably well to it, and some who would react terribly.

At that moment, if Ling Ran wanted to preserve Mao Penghai's finger, then using drugs that would just lead to normal blood thinning effects would not be enough.

Lu Wenbin saw this as well. Once the surgery ended, he deliberately said, ”Why don't I stay in the hospital and watch over Mao Penghai?”

Ling Ran took off his gloves and scrubs before he thought about this for a few seconds. He then said, ”Sure.”

”I'll try my best to preserve the finger.” Lu Wenbin was already used to Ling Ran's personality, so he took the initiative and said, ”I won't be joining you for your surgeries tomorrow, by the way.”

”Okay. Rest tomorrow. Don't join any surgeries.” Ling Ran no longer asked to perform large numbers of surgeries every day. Compared to the M-Tang technique, the energy consumption for finger replantations was much greater. It was equally taxing on the mind and a person's stamina, and it also ate up a large amount of time.

No matter how good Ling Ran's body was, Lu Wenbin and Ma Yanlin's bodies would sooner or later collapse if he kept on performing surgeries at such a rate.

After all, once they reach the stage where they must perform finger replantations, the responsibility of an assistant would also become much greater; they were no longer just supposed to operate the retractor. Furthermore, the two of them still had to perform ward rounds, write medical records, give doctor's advice, and do other miscellaneous things. Even if the two of them alternated shifts, they still did not have time to rest and relax. Once they were through the smoker episode today, even Ling Ran wanted to rest.

As for Lu Wenbin, he had already completely given up on resting. Finger replantations were similar to the other surgeries. The frequency for postoperative complications to happen were the highest at the earliest postoperative stage. If the patient managed to last through it, then there was a high chance for the replanted finger to survive.

Lu Wenbin stayed up all night, constantly ready to give doctor's orders and put together a suitable set of medication for the patient, all because he hoped to raise the success rate of the surgery.

Lu Wenbin continued to stay at Mao Penghai's side throughout the next day and the night. During that period, Lu Wenbin only took short naps. Every single time the slightest disturbance showed, or when his mobile phone vibrated (which it would at a fixed time because he had set it as such), he would wake up.

Lu Wenbin was not unaccustomed to this life. He often did this when he cooked pork trotters. He calculated the time he needed to put the spices and ingredients into the stew, and used whatever free time he had to rest and sleep…

However, compared to pork trotters, waiting for the change in color for a replanted finger was a little too tough.

On the third day...