The Surgeon’s Studio

The operative site had a very limited field of vision. Back in the day, Zheng Ren definitely would not have completed a surgery under such circumstances.

A restrictive line of sight increased the degree of difficulty of surgery tremendously.

However, after continuously performing more than two thousand appendectomies in the intensive training provided by the System, he had acclimatized the operative view of a tiny surgical opening.

It was impossible to attain the perfect standard required by the System with a large incision anyway, as it was simply too messy and amateurish.

If this was an ordinary surgery, the operation would have been declared successful once the inflamed appendix was resected. The following steps would be peritoneal cavity irrigation with normal saline, topical administration of antibiotics and finally, surgical wound closure.

However, that was nowhere close to perfection. At the upper right corner of Zheng Ren’s vision laid a surgical progress bar which stated [86 percent].

Excellent rating only. Not enough yet.

What Zheng Ren needed to do right now was to debride the abscesses on the surface of the gallbladder wall so that antibiotics could take effect as soon as possible.

The gallbladder was edematous due to bacterial infection and caused its surrounding walls to be fragile, like a delicate porcelain vase.

It was beyond question that the 86 percent shown in the progress bar would reduce to negative instantly if there was an iatrogenic perforation of the gallbladder wall.

This procedure put not only the patient’s life at risk, but also Zheng Ren’s. Thus, extreme vigilance was compulsory and negligence was not an option in this situation.

Both the medium-sized curved forceps and the surgical scissors were in his right hand, with the finger holder of the scissors hanging on his right thumb. Depending on what was required, the positions of these two instruments could be swapped easily with a gentle flick of his fingers.

His hand movements were gentle and proficient as he dissected the abscesses from the surface of the gallbladder wall using the blunt end of the surgical scissors, which hung on his thumb most of the time.

Sea City General Hospital was well-equipped with advanced demonstration hardware for learning purposes. There were two monitors in the surgical demonstration classroom—one for the panoramic view of the surgical field, and the other connected to the camera in the surgical lighthead. The camera was able to capture everything the light touched, and so blindspots were essentially nonexistent as the surgery was projected onto the classroom screens.

Zheng Ren’s hand movements were displayed very clearly when the second screen was set as the main view of the surgical field.

“That is skillful, but why does it look so familiar?”

“The way he uses the surgical scissors and medium-sized forceps…”

Chief Surgeon Liu’s expression darkened instantly upon hearing the discussion behind him.

On the other hand, Chief Physician Old Pan was not in a good mood, either. He believed Zheng Ren was simply gilding the lily in debriding the abscesses from the surface of the gallbladder wall, since the patient’s immune system could deal with them postoperatively with no issue.

At least the risk of surgical failure would be minimal even if the patient had to be discharged a few days late. The game was not worth the candle if surgical complications arose because of this unnecessary procedure.

The chat room in Xinglin Garden was overwhelmed with comments.

The view of the surgical field in the live broadcast was much clearer and direct than the projector screen used in Sea City General Hospital’s surgical demonstration classroom.

[The surgery and live broadcast are amazing and professional. Is it possible that some live broadcast platform is going to start livestreaming surgeries and came here to test the waters?]

[Don’t be ridiculous. There are less than a hundred surgeons in this country who can perform such an outstanding surgery. No matter who he is, it’s impossible that he would visit any live broadcast platform to livestream his surgery.]

[The blunt dissections were done beautifully. My fifty-meter surgical sword is craving blood. Fortunately, I have surgery this evening. I’m going to try it out later.]

After worshipping a god, it was time for reassessment, amelioration, and experiments.

Every doctor… Well, most doctors possessed this insatiable hunger for knowledge.

Each and every comment transformed into specks of light, invisible to the naked eye, which passed through the dimensional barrier and flew right into the fox statue in the System.

Slowly but surely, the spacial distortion in the System stabilized.

“Warm normal saline and gentamicin irrigation.” Zheng Ren sighed in relief as the last abscess was dissected. Staring at the transparent screen on the upper right corner of his vision which showed 97 percent, his initial anxiety was slowly replaced with calm.

Based on Zheng Ren’s experience, that number would reach 100 percent as long as he followed basic surgical steps—irrigation and abdominal surgical wound closure, which meant that he had performed this appendectomy surgery perfectly.

Success!

After the warm normal saline was handed over, Zheng Ren started pouring it along the tiny surgical incision into the peritoneal cavity and waited for twenty seconds before aspiration was initiated.

Meanwhile, Xie Yiren filled the syringe with gentamicin and removed the needle before passing it to Zheng Ren.

He injected gentamicin into the peritoneal cavity slowly before starting abdominal wound closure.

Some liked to use powdered antibiotics from the cephalosporin family while others preferred to use old-fashioned gentamicin for intraperitoneal administration of antimicrobials.

Zheng Ren belonged to the latter group.

There was a subtle difference between these two options. Based on Zheng Ren’s experience after thousands of surgical practices in the System, he concluded that gentamicin was more suitable for this patient’s current condition.

The abdominal incision was small so its closure could be done in a short amount of time.

However, Zheng Ren dared not loosen up or let his guard down because he was unsure whether he was given only ten surgeries to perform perfectly or if ten perfect surgeries were required from a hundred. God only knew what the System actually wanted with him…

He had no choice but to put pressure on himself. He needed to perform ten operations and all of them had to achieve perfection.

Each layer of the abdominal cavity was sutured accordingly. Once Zheng Ren reached the skin layer, he hesitated for a while before asking for a 3-0 absorbable suture for a running subcuticular suture technique.

This surgery was officially complete, according to Xie Yiren.

She relaxed and smiled. “Doctor Zheng, the patient is a forty-year-old man. I don’t think an abdominal scar is a concern to him at all.”

“I just want to do everything perfectly,” replied Zheng Ren while continuing closure of the surgical wound.

“Young female patients will feel blessed under your care in the future,” Xie Yiren smiled in response.

“Yes. I can make it woundless if it’s just a simple appendicitis case,” replied Zheng Ren.

Xie Yiren was stunned momentarily. Woundless? Doctor Zheng must be joking with her.

Yes… it must be a joke.

Even though Xie Yiren did not assist Zheng Ren in the operating theater frequently, it was perfectly normal for a surgical team to tell funny stories or make dirty jokes in order to maintain a joyful and tension-free atmosphere in the operating theater.