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Chapter 815: Using a Laparoscope

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

“Radical gastrectomy for stomach cancer using a laparoscope? No way, it’s way too risky!” Even though Ouyang Kan was an amicable person, he stopped acting so five minutes into the preoperative consultation.

As expected, the department director of the General Surgery Department, two attending physicians, and a resident doctor who were sitting beside him sat still without saying a thing.

Huo Congjun merely froze for a moment before he smiled in relief. No matter how amicable certain surgeons were, there was definitely a limit to it, and Ouyang Kan had reached his limit. Huo Congjun felt that Ouyang Kan was already considered a pushover for being able to withhold his temper to this extent.

Of course, associate chief physicians or even chief physicians of small departments might not really be capable of bullying him. But Huo Congjun was capable of doing so, and from his perspective, he was very satisfied with how soft Ouyang Kan was as a person.

Ling Ran, who was sitting beside Huo Congjun, though, did not seem like he was the slightest bit affected by Ouyang Kan’s attitude. He continued pointing at the Powerpoint slide with a laser pointer and said, “There are two main reasons why I’m choosing to carry out the radical gastrectomy for stomach cancer using a laparoscope. First of all, the patient is still in the early stages of stomach cancer, so the boundaries of the malignant growth are clear enough. With a laparoscope, we will inflict less damage to the patient’s body. Secondly, I am very good at lymphadenectomy.”

Ouyang Kan was about to raise the issue of lymphadenectomy anyway, and after he heard Ling Ran’s reply, he got so exasperated that he laughed. “This means that you know about the issues that we will face if we were to carry out the radical gastrectomy for stomach cancer using a laparoscope too. But lymphadenectomy is a world-class problem. To ensure a good survival rate and reduce the chances of recurrence, you have to make sure that all the lymph nodes around the malignant tumor are removed, and this is very difficult. You also have to remove all the cancerous cells that are scattered around the abdominal cavity, and this is even more difficult…”

“However, I’m very good at lymphadenectomy too.” Even though Ling Ran’s reply made it sound to outsiders like he was trying to start an argument with Ouyang Kan, he was indeed confident in his abilities. After all, he possessed Perfect Level Lymphadenectomy, and this skill could be utilized regardless of whether he was using a laparoscope or carrying out open surgery.

Ouyang Kan did not believe in Ling Ran’s abilities. He shook his head and said, “I agreed to play second fiddle to you because I was worried that something like this would happen. Doctor Ling, I know that you have operated on patients with liver cancer before. But operating on patients with liver cancer and operating on patients with stomach cancer are different, after all. If you insist on operating on the patient using a laparoscope, I would like to ask you to transfer the patient under my care. This way, we can talk properly to the patient too…”

“Ouyang.” The department director of the General Surgery Department had made up his mind earlier not to say anything. However, right now, he had no other choice except to speak, “Since Doctor Ling said that he will not have a problem when it comes to lymphadenectomy, why don’t we decide on this first and see where the discussion takes us…”

“There wouldn’t be any point in that. It’s very troublesome to perform lymphadenectomy when a laparoscope is used for the surgery. Now that we can’t even decide on whether to use a laparoscope or carry out an open surgery, there wouldn’t be any point in continuing the discussion…”

“You’ve never seen Doctor Ling carry out a hepatectomy before, have you?” The department director of the General Surgery Department cut Ouyang Kan off again.

Ouyang Kan hesitated for a few seconds and said, “I’ve watched him carry out a hepatectomy as well as an Achilles tendon repair surgery…”

“Please find a video of Doctor Ling performing lymphadenectomy during a hepatectomy and play it. Doctor Ouyang is quite a stubborn man, and it would help to show him a video,” the director of the General Surgery Department requested. The doctors from the Emergency Department glanced at Huo Congjun and started searching for a video.

The director of the General Surgery Department shook his head, a little resigned. The main reason doctors like Ouyang Kan were becoming slower and slower when it came to improving their skills was because they were always busy working instead of learning. Ouyang Kan was always busy carrying out surgeries to accumulate experience, but he never bothered becoming a spectator to other surgeons’ surgeries.

That may be why Ouyang Kan became a pretty good doctor, but it was also why he had hit a brick wall in terms of getting further ahead on his path as a doctor.

It only took Yu Yuan a very short time to find a video of Ling Ran performing a hepatectomy. She introduced the video, “Doctor Ling carried out this hepatectomy in Beijing, and he is using the Ling Hepatectomy Technique that he established. This technique involves carrying out pathological examination during the duration of the hepatectomy, and it is used in many hospitals in Beijing including the Second Affiliated Hospital of Beijing Medical University right now. At the moment, this technique is also being tried out in other countries including the United Kingdom.

After Yu Yuan finished her introduction, everyone in the room immediately became silent.

Yu Yuan raised her head when she saw this, pleased with herself. She then looked around and said slowly, “Due to time constraints, I will fast forward to the part where Doctor Ling performs lymphadenectomy.”

As she spoke, she slid the circle icon on the timeline and fast-forwarded the video.

The meeting room was silent.

On the screen, the surgical field could be seen clearly. It almost looked clean. The lymph nodes, which were about the size of a grain of rice were removed one after another. Even though Ling Ran did not clear large areas at once, the surgery was going very smoothly, and it was obvious that he was extremely familiar with the anatomical structures in the abdominal cavity.

Ouyang Kan immediately went into a daze when he saw that.

Ouyang Kan proclaimed himself as one of the top experts in Changxi Province when it came to stomach cancer, and he had performed lymphadenectomy countless times. He had also watched countless doctors carry out lymphadenectomy. Hence, he was utterly shocked the moment he saw Ling Ran’s maneuvers.

A surgeon who could achieve this excellence was definitely extremely familiar with the anatomical structures in the abdominal cavity. He definitely understood the patient’s condition very well too.

Ouyang Kan could not help but blurt out, “Where did you grow up in?”

Ling Ran answered truthfully, “Lower Groove Clinic.”

“What?” Ouyang Kan was puzzle.d

The attending physician sitting beside Ouyang Kan was a young man. He could not help but mutter, “Don’t even ask. You’re making yourself sound like a ‘genius’.”

“Those who are genii don’t need to be proven as genii at all, you know?” Ouyang Kan responded. He did not understand the attending physician’s sarcasm at all.

“Aspirate.”

On the screen, the surgery continued.

Ouyang Kan felt that he did not need to see any more of the surgery. He waved in dismissal. “You can close the video now.”

Yu Yuan looked around, and when she saw that no one was objecting to it, she did as Ouyang Kan said and closed the video.

“What’s next?” When Ouyang Kan said this, he had given his tacit approval to Ling Ran performing radical gastrectomy for stomach cancer using a laparoscope.

Now that lymphadenectomy was no longer a problem, there would be plenty of advantages to performing the gastrectomy using a laparoscope. The speed in recovery alone meant that the patient could go through chemotherapy earlier, and he can even use medication which required him to have a higher body tolerance. There was no reason for Ouyang Kan to refuse this.

Ling Ran did not sense the change in Ouyang Kan’s attitude. He merely said, “I’ll be the chief surgeon, so now, we will talk about how we are going to work together. I would like to insert the laparoscope into the pneumoperitoneum by making an incision below the belly button. After exploratory laparotomy, the first thing we need to do is to separate the greater omentum…”

They were discussing the operative route.

When it came to surgery, the choice of the operative route basically determined the surgical method.

Ouyang Kan had made quite a lot of preparations regarding this, but he was not in the mood to speak out right now.

Ling Ran’s choice of operative route was not in line with that of Ouyang Kan. If Ouyang Kan had not seen the video of Ling Ran performing lymphadenectomy, he would have voiced out his objection vehemently. However, because of how cool Ling Ran’s maneuvers were, Ouyang Kan could only tell himself to relax.

Since Ling Ran would be the chief surgeon, Ouyang Kan had no choice but to agree with Ling Ran’s choice.

Currently, he no longer had the confidence to snatch the role of chief surgeon away from Ling Ran.

Ling Ran talked about his choice of operative route in a straightforward manner. He then explained the situation to the nurses and the anesthetist. This was when his expertise in so many areas came into play.

Huo Congjun was so joyous that he was smiling ear to ear.

It seemed like this gastrectomy was going to be a success. And when this happened, it would bring even more glory to the Emergency Medical Center.