"You’re quite confident! Let me test you, where should the incision for this endoscopic surgery be made?"
As Director Shang asked this, his gaze naturally fell on the patient’s abdomen.
"If it’s a laparoscopic surgery, then it should definitely involve making two incisions in the area you are looking at. This type of surgery is only considered for patients in the middle stages of stomach cancer. This patient is currently in the early stages of stomach cancer, so I think an endoscope entering through the nose is sufficient to complete the surgery."
Zhou Can had performed many endoscopic surgeries, not for nothing.
So this little question, and Director Shang still wanted to test him.
This was simply giving him free points!
"Alright, it seems you really have mastered the surgical methods, this surgery is yours to handle then."
Director Shang only symbolically tested him before agreeing to hand over the surgery.
The feeling it gave was more like deliberately letting him pass,
as a way to justify it to other doctors.
Director Shang had several physicians under him, and he had always advocated for fair competition, letting the most skilled person take the lead.
Zhou Can wanted to be in charge of this endoscopic surgery alone, but technically, his qualifications were not enough.
If Director Shang agreed directly, then next time other doctors in the group would want to seize their chance at surgery, and Director Shang could only agree.
Thus, he deliberately set a threshold for the sake of blocking others from criticizing.
Once Zhou Can received Director Shang’s approval, he was thrilled, seeing this as a chance to earn Experience Points.
This surgery would certainly allow him to earn quite a few surgery Experience Points.
First, the endoscope was inserted through the patient’s nasal passage, then passed through the esophagus into the stomach.
[Implantation Technique Experience Points +1]
This wasn’t the first time he had performed the procedure of inserting the endoscope from the nasal passage to the stomach, so he only earned 1 point of implantation experience.
The entire procedure was carried out very smoothly.
He skillfully navigated the endoscope directly to the site of cancer in the stomach.
With almost no effort, he easily located the cancerous area. What seemed like a simple operation, was actually the result of a decade of practice offstage.
Besides needing to practice endoscopic techniques, he also needed to do thorough prep work before the surgery.
As for the cancerous area, he had already deeply memorized its location,
allowing his manipulation to head straight to the critical spot smoothly.
After finding the cancerous site, he didn’t just swiftly cut it off with the endoscope. An endoscopic surgery for stomach cancer isn’t that simple.
Zhou Can first marked out the excision margin around the cancer.
This is akin to drawing a circle before a battle.
To ensure no collateral damage during the battle.
After marking the excision margin, physiological saline was injected at the base of the cancer.
To make the mucosal part that needed to be excised bulge up.
These valuable surgical techniques and experiences were amassed by predecessors abroad after numerous failed operations on patients’ stomachs.
The benefits sown by one’s forebears are reaped by their successors.
Zhou Can learned these skills, applying them all to actual surgeries,
striving to minimize harm to patients.
Once enough saline was injected and the mucosa beneath the cancer base fully bulged up, Zhou Can carried out the third step.
Navigating the endoscopic surgical knife along the marked excision circle, he made a complete circular incision.
If the gastric cancer isn’t circular, the excision circle could also be of other shapes.
It doesn’t necessarily have to be circular.
Generally speaking, gastric cancer, even at its mid to late stages, tends to cluster and predominantly forms circular shapes.
At this moment, Zhou Can marked a circle.
Enclosing the gastric cancer within.
As soon as the knife made a cut, fresh blood spurted from the incision. Zhou Can calmly performed hemostasis on the patient.
Until the incision along the marked line was completed.
By then, the whole gastric cancer along with the cancer base was excised.
It must be noted that the excised cancerous part needed to be removed. Taking it out through the nasal passage wasn’t feasible, as it was too small.
Thus, removing the cancerous part through the patient’s mouth became the best choice.
During the surgery, the patient was under general anesthesia.
Generally, their mouth would be closed.
This required using a crowbar to pry open the patient’s mouth. Plus, care must be taken when removing the excised cancer to prevent the patient from suffocating to death.
Zhou Can’s handling was very adept and naturally, he didn’t risk suffocating the patient.
Successfully removing the cancerous part, and then after the surgery, it needed to be sent for examination to further determine the nature of the tumor and whether the margins were clear.
During the process of excising the cancerous part, it’s common to also remove some normal tissue.
Even so, there’s still a chance it wasn’t entirely cleared.
Cancer cells can be particularly cunning, often secretly infiltrating surrounding organs or tissues and easily spreading to other areas through lymph or blood vessels.
A post-operative pathological examination is extremely necessary.
After Zhou Can successfully excised the gastric cancer, he further inspected the patient’s stomach, performing a cleaning procedure.
With that, the surgery was declared over.
If after some time, an examination reveals a new tumor at the excised site or elsewhere, or a cancerous change, then a second or even third surgery might be necessary.
Typically, when multiple surgeries are needed, the treatment outcome tends to be poor.
This is because the recurrence of a cancerous tumor implies the cancer cells have spread to other parts of