342 Arthroscopy (1/2)

The patient... lay on a dark green surgical towel.

He was covered in a large, light blue sterile sheet, and only his knee was exposed.Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click visiting.

Even though the patient was awake right then, his face was covered by the sterile sheet. He could only stare at the light blue sheet and listen to music broadcasted in the operating theater. He felt extremely bored.

”Why don't we administer general anesthesia?” Zuo Cidian knew that Ling Ran did not like to chat with his patients, so he took the initiative to do so. Of course, it was also because Zuo Cidian liked to talk and was afraid of getting bored.

The patient was a sixty-two-year-old man. He anxiously and firmly shook his head while he was covered by the sterile sheet. ”I don't want general anesthesia. I know someone who never woke up after receiving general anesthesia, and that person died in the end,” he said.

”Someone died from anesthesia? That's uncommon.” Zuo Cidian was astounded.

”The hospital said that he died from a heart attack and did not even want to give any compensation. We all knew Old Liu well. Even though he had high blood pressure and some problems with his heart, it was not to the extent that he would die from it.” The old man paused for a moment and spoke in a confident tone, ”General anesthesia's really harmful to the public.”

Zuo Cidian glanced at Ling Ran. All of a sudden, he no longer found chatting with patients a good idea.

”Inflate the tourniquet and check the patient's condition,” Ling Ran said to Yu Yuan as he marked the patient's knee with a surgical skin marker pen.

Knee arthroscopic meniscoplasty actually required only one assistant. However, as it was impossible for the doctors of Zhucheng People's Hospital to let Ling Ran work without supervision, they assigned their attending physician, Zhang Pengyi, who was originally supposed to be the chief surgeon, as the first assistant. Hence, Yu Yuan became the second assistant. Zuo Cidian was only there to observe the surgery anyway, so he just stood aside and watched as the three doctors worked.

”The operative route will be on the side of the patellofemoral ligament,” Ling Ran explained to his assistants before he observed the patient's knee. He then extended his hand and said, ”Scalpel.”

*Slap.*

The scrub nurse, who was feeling extremely anxious, immediately placed a scalpel in Ling Ran's palm. After she did that, she instantly grew even more anxious.

Ling Ran raised his head, glanced at her, and flashed a smile. He then turned and made a 0.2-inch incision in the position he marked with the surgical skin marker pen earlier.

The scrub nurse's entire body was extremely tense, and she started to imagine endless possibilities.

”Skin pricker,” Ling Ran reminded her.

*Slap!*

The scrub nurse used all that she had learned in her career to place the skin pricker on Ling Ran's palm at the fastest speed and the best angle with the most appropriate amount of strength. Just as the skin pricker was about to land on Ling Ran's palm, she even drew the skin pricker back a little.

For a surgeon, that was the best a scrub nurse could do.

Ling Ran flashed a smile at the scrub nurse again before he immediately lowered his head and steadily pierced the skin pricker into the patient's knee joint.

Ling Ran then inserted the arthroscope before he ordered. ”Increase infusion of saline solution.”

Zhang Pengyi, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, immediately increased the amount of saline solution pumped into the patient's vein.

He was a little worried that there would be problems with Ling Ran's maneuvers earlier.

Verbally, he had been showering this specialist from another hospital with praises. However, the saying that different trades were mountains apart was especially true in the medical field. Even internationally renowned cardiologists may not have a thorough knowledge of the knee joint.

Take Atsushi Amano, who performed coronary artery bypass surgery for the Emperor of Japan, as an example. He was renowned for being the chief surgeon of six thousand cases of coronary artery bypass surgery. In addition, he had guided other surgeons in ten thousand cases of coronary artery bypass surgery. He performed an average of five hundred cases of coronary artery bypass surgery every year, which was almost ten times the average of ordinary Japanese doctors and five times the average of ordinary Chinese doctors.

However, aside from that, Atsushi Amano did not perform any other kinds of surgery. He did not need to know anything about knee arthroscopy or ankle arthroscopy. He probably had knowledge of their basic anatomical structure, but that was all.

Zhang Pengyi only willingly allowed Ling Ran to take the position of a chief surgeon because Ling Ran had experience in arthroscopy, and also because he was a specialist from another hospital whom his hospital spent a large sum of money to hire. However, Zhang Pengyi's name was written in the surgery form instead of Ling Ran's. Hence, it was only natural for him to be worried.