Chapter 677: [(677)] You come to excise Chapter 677: [(677)] You come to excise The sheer number of barriers, just the final one alone, keeps many from attempting laparoscopic liver surgery. Such a result is not surprising since liver surgeries in open procedures are likewise extremely challenging.
The difficulty of liver surgery is such that disrupting blood flow to the liver can cause irreversible damage. The dream of every hepatobiliary surgeon is to perform tumor resections without interrupting blood flow or causing blood loss. To them, it might sound like a fantasy, but surgeons have been tirelessly seeking the perfect solution, even trying methods such as extracting the entire liver like in liver transplantation then performing hypothermic perfusion before removing the tumor.
Research to date has shown that no liver surgery technique has achieved perfection. This illustrates just how difficult the liver is for surgeons to handle.
Today’s surgery, being performed laparoscopically, must have its unique features.
On the operating table, Dr. He and Dr. Gong started a discussion:
“The tumor is not large, but it’s positioned too deeply, close to the inferior vena cava.”
“The CT scan temporarily shows no invasion into the inferior vena cava, but who knows for sure.”
Imaging studies can’t represent the final outcome. Surgeons, as always, must confirm for themselves inside the patient’s abdomen. The laparoscope, in such small-volume tumor resections, demonstrates its unique advantages–it doesn’t require an open surgery, minimizes damage, and can be directly inserted deep into the lesion site and magnified. It’s like inserting a fine needle with a magnifying glass; the affected area is displayed much more clearly.
The surgeons carefully began by mobilizing the liver, examining the surrounding organs, blood vessels, lymph nodes, and so on, as they navigated their way to the location of the tumor.
On the monitor, the appearance of the tumor’s location, without the patient’s medical records for reference, left Xie Wanying with no choice but to rely on the earlier conversation between the doctors to deduce it was on the left lateral lobe of the liver. The surgeon’s words immediately afterwards confirmed her guess was right.
“It’s in the left lateral lobe, which is good. The tumor size is 6, not much larger than the CT result; it’s operable,” said He Guangyou, the First Assistant, before the Chief Surgeon had a chance to speak, expressing his relief.
Standing opposite him, Gong Xiangbin suddenly shrugged his shoulders at him: Did you notice those eyes behind us?
Indeed, there were eyes keen as a microscope, observing their every move in meticulous detail, causing an inevitable sense of nervousness.
It was Xie Wanying. The eyebrows above He Guangyou’s mask raised slightly. Gong Xiangbin hadn’t had past contact with her like he and Tao Zhijie had; he was unaware of her peculiarities. Geniuses often have idiosyncratic characters, but Xie Wanying was unusual even among geniuses.
What Gong Xiangbin wanted to say to his colleague was that her gaze on him was becoming more like that of a Boss–extremely detailed and focused.
Soon enough, they had no time to think about anything else. They saw Tao Zhijie suddenly stop what he was doing and call out, “You do the resection.”
He was calling Xiao Song, who had just arrived today, Song Xueling.
In an instant, the operating room tightened up like a fully drawn bow, going from somewhat meticulous to extremely tense.
The anesthesiologist and nurses, observing the fresh and unfamiliar face of Song Xueling, could immediately tell he was a newcomer.
A pure novice suddenly called to the operating table could only end in one of two ways: either he lives up to expectations and succeeds, or he fails, with the worst scenario being the newcomer making a mistake, potentially delaying the operation.
The anesthesiologist looked up at the clock as if to stand and adjust the anesthesia. But in the end, he didn’t stand up, instead turning to look at Tao Zhijie’s expression.
It should be said, he trusted Tao Zhijie’s judgment of novices, so there was no need for extra preparation.