Chapter 268: Persona Collapse

"Urinoma? Doctor Xiao Ji, don't joke around." Lu Gang stood straight, his hand supporting his chin as he carefully reviewed the images. After confirming, he smiled slightly, full of an elegant, scholarly air.

It was just that the last wisp of his hair hung down along his sterile cap, making him look less than professional. The Circulating Nurse had long wanted to mutter a few words at him, but was held back by the Anesthesiologist, who whispered that this person was a big shot from the Medical Affairs Department and not to offend him.

"I'm not joking," Ji Xiang said.

"Urinomas generally appear due to congenital developmental abnormalities of the urethral glands, which cause toxins and secretions in the urethral glandular lumen to be unable to be excreted from the body, thus easily forming a urethral cyst," Lu Gang explained. "The patient we are facing now has trauma, and you're telling me it's a urinoma?"

"Trauma can also possibly lead to ureteral rupture."

"Doctor Xiao Ji, you're being a bit unreasonable here." Lu Gang smiled slightly, convinced that Ji Xiang was only good at performing surgery, while his diagnostic level... was simply too average.

"The ureter is located in the retroperitoneal space, surrounded by adipose tissue and connective tissue, acting like an air mattress; it's very hard to see in trauma cases. Under normal circumstances, ureteral ruptures occur due to the clinical doctor's incorrect operation."

"What are you saying? I didn't open the retroperitoneal space," the Resident Chief of the Hepatobiliary Surgery Department said, seeing the few people from the Urology Department arguing.

"Are you talking to me?" Lu Gang asked with a frown.

"Oh," the Resident Chief of the Hepatobiliary Surgery Department quickly explained, "Director Lu, how would I dare? I meant that you are right!"

Lu Gang nodded; he was long accustomed to similar situations. It was mandatory for junior doctors to show respect to senior doctors.

"Teacher Lu, aren't there any exceptions?" Ji Xiang asked.

"Doctor Xiao Ji, do you know how likely it is for blunt trauma to cause ureteral rupture or tearing?" Lu Gang smiled, trying his best to display his professional competence.

He had a competitive streak inside and held some grievances regarding Bai Chuzhang's arrangements. It was just that the wisp of hair in front of his sterile cap looked a bit strange, not matching his professional image at all.

Now, seeing Ji Xiang's "blind" diagnosis, Lu Gang prepared to show Ji Xiang the qualities a clinical doctor should have, at least to keep Ji Xiang from being too smug.

"A three in ten thousand possibility, Doctor Xiao Ji." Lu Gang smiled, giving a quite professional statistic. "Those of us in clinical practice cannot base things on extremely low-probability events."

"Teacher Lu, the imaging has already provided proof; there is a urinoma. If we don't treat it, there will be no urine after coming off the table, and we'll have to go through the trouble again."

Lu Gang truly didn't know who gave Ji Xiang the courage.

It was likely that Bai Chuzhang had spoiled him.

It was no wonder; achieving success at a young age, being a bit arrogant was to be expected.

If they weren't in the operating room, Lu Gang would have wanted to make a bet with Ji Xiang and give him a good lesson.

"Doctor Xiao Ji, there's nothing to ponder; what's on the image is an artifact," Lu Gang said indifferently. "This kind of artifact appears very often on CT images."

In the United States, independent practice requires a 4+4+3-7 resident program, at least 11 years; a young person like Ji Xiang was completely unqualified to stand in front of him and talk.

Lu Gang subconsciously ignored one point—in the country, one is actually also unqualified, it's just that Ji Xiang is relatively special.

Having only been in Standardized Residency Training for a few months and not even having rotated out of the first department, he had already achieved the top score in the entire province; it was no wonder Ji Xiang was arrogant and dared to challenge him.

"Why don't we do a CT scan?" Ji Xiang suggested.

Lu Gang sighed. "Doctor Xiao Ji, the patient is under general anesthesia and in a state of hemorrhagic shock; it wouldn't be appropriate to wake the patient from anesthesia and drag them to the CT Room. If we have to intubate or manually ventilate, there could be a life-threatening risk at any moment."

He was already a bit impatient, but still tried to keep his tone calm, displaying his label of being elegant and easygoing.

Even if he didn't know for what purpose Bai Chuzhang had asked him to assist Ji Xiang, deep down, Lu Gang still refused to accept it.

He looked at Ji Xiang with a helpless gaze, but when Ji Xiang turned his head, his gaze was equally helpless.

Lu Gang was startled. His own helplessness was understandable, but why would Ji Xiang have this emotion too? Could it be that he was certain he was right? This young man was truly arrogant.

"Teacher Lu, this is an emergency operating room, a hybrid operating room; the DSA Machine can perform CT scans. There's no need to drag the patient around, it's a matter of a few minutes," Ji Xiang explained.

"..." Lu Gang was dumbfounded upon hearing Ji Xiang's explanation.

Hybrid surgery—he had never done it and didn't know at all that the DSA Machine had this function!

"I suggest checking to be absolutely sure. Otherwise, once we go down and there's no urine, we'll have to go back up again," Ji Xiang continued.

Lu Gang was silent.

"I think that works," Wu Zong said, making the final decision.

He was the Resident Chief and the doctor here for the consultation; if Wu Zong didn't speak, nothing anyone else said would matter.

"Wu Zong, you've changed your personality today," the Resident Chief of the Hepatobiliary Surgery Department said with a chuckle. "I thought you were just coming up to take a look at me closing the abdomen and then going back down."

"It's better to be cautious."

The resident from Hepatobiliary Surgery quickly removed the ruptured spleen, turned back to look at Wu Zong, and asked, "Should I go down?"

"Go down. If there's a problem, I'll help you close the abdomen."

The resident from Hepatobiliary Surgery took off his blood-covered gloves and looked at Ji Xiang earnestly, but didn't speak.

It was already past work hours and there were no technicians; plus, both medical and nursing staff in the General Surgery Operating Room rarely used the DSA Machine, so Ji Xiang simply did it himself, operating the DSA Machine to perform the CT.

Watching the machine roar in the familiar operating room, the resident from Hepatobiliary Surgery was quite moved. "After all these years, this is the first time I've known this thing could do a CT."

Who wasn't? Lu Gang felt his professional persona was about to shatter; he gritted his teeth and watched Ji Xiang's movements.

It was simply too proficient, so proficient that it gave Lu Gang an illusion—that Ji Xiang had been in contact with the DSA Machine for at least 20 years.

"It's rarely needed, and even in Interventional Surgery, it's rare. The CT machine's effect is far worse than our CT Room's; it can only barely be used for a look," Ji Xiang explained.

"Being able to know this is already very impressive." The resident from Hepatobiliary Surgery looked at Ji Xiang with great interest. "Doctor Xiao Ji is the one who broke Dean Zhao's knot-tying record, right?"

"That's all in the past. If you hadn't mentioned it, I wouldn't even remember that Xiao Ji had done such a thing," Wu Zong said, staring at the screen.

"What?" The resident from Hepatobiliary Surgery was surprised. "You forgot such a big thing? Wu Zong, are you jealous?"

"Not at all."

Some things couldn't be said explicitly; Wu Zong had truly forgotten the knot-tying matter entirely.

The repeat CT scan revealed bilateral perirenal retroperitoneal contrast enhancement; Ji Xiang brought the CT taken in the emergency room for comparison.

With the comparison, the location of the urinoma was even more clearly visible.

There were problems on both sides.

The comparative imaging was even clearer than the previous films.

Lu Gang looked at the images, feeling inexplicably surprised.

A trauma patient, or rather a blunt trauma patient, who had a three in ten thousand chance of being encountered, actually had a ureteral rupture!

Click~

Lu Gang felt that his persona had completely collapsed.

(End of chapter)