Chapter 2554: Fundamental Elements

Okay, now the most difficult surgical procedure has been chosen, but there is little time left for the Chief Surgeon and the assistants. The numbers on the electronic clock on the wall are ticking away, showing five hours and thirty-two minutes.

The air in the operating room becomes scorching hot, and the faces behind the doctors’ masks are slightly sweaty. There is noise from the next operating room, and people passing in the surgery corridor are saying: "Is Dr. Han on his way back?"

"Yes. Fortunately, we can make it in time to use it."

"Whether it can be used might have to wait until the heart arrives. How is Dr. Cao’s side of the surgery going?"

"It’s hard to say. Their donor heart is far away, and it has taken a long time to bring it back. The heart doesn’t tolerate long durations. Perhaps both surgeries will end at about the same time."

Tonight, both surgeries are unusual, with the donor heart challenging the transplant surgeons’ technical limits.

"Almost finished? Both surgeries should have straightforward anastomosis, right?"

"No. Dr. Cao’s surgery is for a complete heart transplant."

Oh my god. —This is almost the unanimous cry within the minds of those who heard the answer.

Someone is running up to the door of Cao Zhao’s operating room, peeking in, trying to figure out how the other side plans to complete this highly complicated surgery.

Is it like a celestial being lightly tapping with divine methods?

If a surgeon had divine methods, it would be expected to be a complete surgical technique, combining theory and practice, much like how Student Xie displayed her magic in pediatric orthopedics. Specifically, in the surgical setting, the surgeon’s hand movements must merge seamlessly with the instruments in their hands to achieve an extraordinary effect. This is a warning that Student Xie received early on from Teacher Tan.

Speaking of which, after interning for so long, the various mentors she followed each had their own martial arts secret manual for the surgical instruments in their hands. Take suturing, for example, the most basic surgical technique; each mentor’s choice of materials is closely related to their specialty, and their honed hand skills turn into a display of extraordinary techniques, each different from the other.

In pediatric cardiac surgery, just mentioned was the extremely difficult anastomosis at the suture site. How do the doctors solve this difficulty?

The basic elements of suturing are twofold: one is the suture material, and the other is the suturing technique.

First, let’s talk about suture materials. If special devices like anastomosis devices are not used, and the doctor sutures by hand, the focus lies in the suture thread itself. At the anastomosis site of the heart transplant, it is indeed all done by manual suturing. The angles at which the various blood vessels anastomose are too tricky, requiring extremely high flexibility in the suturing operation, which rigid devices cannot fulfill.

How to choose the suture thread? First, let’s talk about the diameter of the suture thread. The thread is represented by the number of zeros, with six zeros being the finest. Here’s an interesting point: even with the same numerical label, the thickness of suture threads made from different materials can vary; some materials may have a six-zero thread thicker than another’s six-zero. These are things that surgeons have to figure out on their own.

Okay, the Chief Surgeon gives the command: a six-zero thread.

No surprise, pediatrics requires everything to be thin and small, so using the finest thread is prudent.

What material should the thread be made of?

A skilled instrument nurse, without a reminder from the Chief Surgeon, first pulls out a strip of polypropylene thread. This is a commonly used excellent non-absorbable suture in surgery.

As soon as they hear "non-absorbable suture," some patients might react with fear, questioning whether the doctor is using bad thread due to the patient’s lack of money.