Chapter 370: Life-Saving Thrombus

Although he appeared exceptionally confident when convincing Benny, Kraft still simulated the procedure for several days before formally beginning the treatment.

Five sheep had the honor of making a necessary contribution to the development of supernatural medicine, departing without pain in a manner consistent with animal experimentation ethics.

The patients who benefited would never know the story behind it, but the cultivators who enjoyed the extra meal and Kup, who used their heads to refine his suturing technique, would remember them.

If conditions allowed, Kraft actually wanted to practice a few more times, but time might not permit further delays.

In almost all surgeries, there is a fixed pattern: to achieve the same therapeutic goal, the smaller the damage caused, the higher the requirements for technical skill and the operator's control.

If Dominic's pituitary gland resection was like carving flowers on a great sword, then Lucian's vascular occlusion plan had a bit of the flavor of "literary thought tofu."

The operating principles are similar; both create small-scale layer disturbances and cuts to cause the required destruction in areas that conventional methods cannot handle.

Intracranial blood vessels are already small; those at the pituitary tumor level are mostly below a millimeter, with diameters around three-tenths of a millimeter, roughly the thickness of three to six strands of hair or two mosquito legs—a scale where the concept exists in the brain but the eyes can hardly keep up.

This scale is basically on the same order of magnitude as the minimum width required for the "Sword in the Stone" to tear open a rift, belonging to the category of operations that challenge limits.

Besides his own all-out effort, the patient's head must remain absolutely still during the surgery; if a sneeze occurs or the neck turns even slightly, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Therefore, although the pain produced might be very slight and brief, so small as to be barely noticeable, the surgery must still be performed under general anesthesia.

In addition, the monastery's best carpenter custom-made a set of wooden pillows and neck braces tailored as closely as possible to the head shape to ensure the reliability of the fixation.

There was only so much that could be done externally, but for safety's sake, some internal adjustments were needed: through dietary control, and without pro-coagulant drugs, to make the blood thicker and easier to clot.

During the days Kraft spent preparing, the kitchen was not idle either.

Lucian's meals were adjusted to a special-supply version according to requirements: increased eggs, dairy products, animal fats, and animal livers, while restricting water intake and drinking strong tea.

The overall principle was high calcium, high protein, high fat, diuretic dehydration, and vitamin K supplementation; appropriate hypercalcemia aids platelet activation and aggregation, vitamin K promotes the production of clotting factors, and other components increase blood viscosity.

The actual effect was certainly far inferior to pro-coagulant drugs, highlighting the principle that something is better than nothing and serving a psychological comfort function.

Thrombus formation became theoretically easier, comforting the surgeon; eating and drinking well also comforted the patient. It was a win-win situation.

Of course, when speaking of psychological comfort, the core equipment could not be missing.

Kraft turned his storage box upside down and found the holy symbol gifted by the Cathedral of Our Lady during his treatment of patients in Dunling, hanging it at the head of Lucian's bed. Lei Mengde had assured him that this was absolutely the most authoritative holy symbol in the entire monastery, and even in the surrounding Priyer territory.

Once everything was ready, the first treatment officially began after the morning prayers on the fifth day ended.

Since there were no surface wounds, there was naturally no need to prepare a sterile environment; the venue was directly chosen to be the ward, saving the trouble and risk of transporting the patient.

After the head fixation was complete and anesthesia was ready, Kraft sat by the bedside, his hands hovering on either side of the patient's head—nothing special in meaning, purely a habitual action formed from grasping horns and ears when dealing with sheep, making one feel the control over positioning was slightly more precise.

He occasionally recalled the spellcasting gestures and incantations described in literary works and silently apologized to the settings he had once mocked.

Even though it had nothing to do with the realization mechanism, he and those he had encountered who controlled special powers all had some sort of preparatory movement, as if the ordinary parts of the body and mind were trying to understand the new functions forcibly embedded later.

And while these small movements exposed the intent, they did indeed assist the "spellcasting" to some extent, making it psychologically easier to accept.

He shook off the stray thoughts and found the target vessel. The original inferior hypophyseal artery, originating from the internal carotid artery, had its branches hijacked by the tumor, becoming part of the force aiding the villain.

The blood vessel seemed slightly wider than when he had seen it a few days ago; it appeared the tumor's metabolism and secretion were quite vigorous, inducing angiogenesis and dilation.

In conventional treatment, this would be bad news, implying rapid growth and a higher probability of bleeding during resection surgery, but for Kraft, it was good news, meaning the operation inside the vessel would be slightly easier.

He began to empathize with the pain deep in his spirit, releasing his restrictions on it; like opening the gates in a memory palace, clear, bitter, and fishy-salty floods surged forth—the wailing of wounds everywhere.

It could not be familiarized, could not be adapted to; there was no difference between much and little, only the distinction between existence and non-existence, as if the simple neural signals had undergone a qualitative change, becoming something that truly existed.

Kraft inexplicably felt it was actually very similar to the thing parasitizing Dominic; both were some kind of information that had gained a concrete "existence," which could be contacted and controlled by thought, and could also contact and control thought in reverse.

Only such things could transform into real power, tearing open rifts in the present world through subjective will.

A tiny rift was generated internally along the path of the blood vessel. If it could be seen, it would probably look like a thin string, standing as solid as a rock within the blood flow.

Then, following the results of his practice, he slightly relaxed his control; it would vibrate with extremely small amplitude like a real string, simulating an inserted guidewire to scrape and destroy the vascular endothelium.

Controlling the length of the destruction segment required precise control. It could not be too short, for a thrombus formed from something too short would be unstable and easily washed away; it could not be too long, for something too long would easily injure other normal tissues and block unrelated vessels.

The difference between sheep and humans was still great, so he could only choose a vessel segment about the length of a grain of rice based on limited experience, scrape off the endothelium, and withdraw as quickly as possible.

The coagulation system had already activated; perhaps due to slow blood flow at the distal end, combined with the slight effectiveness of the dietary control over the past few days, within three hundred heartbeats, his spiritual senses had already observed a visible thrombus forming along the endothelial destruction segment.

The cord-like coagulated substance, composed mainly of platelets, was tough and gradually blocked the small artery.

About thirty percent of the pituitary tumor's supply lines were thus cut off, with a few small branches still providing the remainder.

Kraft continued to observe for a while, then disconnected his spiritual senses. Today's treatment ended here; the price of precise control was a sharp decline in his condition.

Even if his condition were better, he did not intend to accomplish everything in one battle; he should first observe the effects and plan cautiously.

Giving Benny a reassuring nod, wiping the cold sweat flowing from tension and discomfort, the doctor silently left the room, leaving the morning's tranquility to the patient and the family.