Chapter 119: with translation of chapter title

"Still quite skilled." Director Pan heard Professor Pei praising Zheng Ren and was very pleased.

One's own child, when wronged, should be protected. When praised by others, one should still be modest.

In Director Pan's heart, Zheng Ren is like his own child, still that very promising, dearly loved one.

"The super-selective procedure was done well." After looking for a few more minutes, Professor Pei said appreciatively.

Microguidewire entered from the hepatic Artery all the way into the next-level Blood Vessel, becoming finer and more difficult with each advance; each super-selective entry must accurately go into the correct next-level Blood Vessel among several branches—its difficulty can be imagined.

Manager Feng originally had a grim face, his complexion especially unsightly.

This was his first trial in his career, using almost all resources, inviting Professor Pei from Modu, all to ensure flawless success.

Unfortunately, man proposes, heaven disposes; at the hospital gate, the car picking up Professor Pei was actually hit, preventing the professor from going on stage.

Although Professor Pei didn't suffer serious injury, seeing that the surgery couldn't be done and knowing he couldn't stay in Hai Cheng much longer, this promotion campaign was bound to end without result.

A grand beginning, a quiet end—Manager Feng could foresee his own future outcome.

But the turning point appeared in the young Inpatient Chief of the Emergency Department at City First Hospital.

The initial worry and anxiety vanished with Professor Pei's single word of approval.

Five minutes, the super-selective procedure ended; the microguidewire, as previously envisioned, entered from the femoral Artery all the way into the liver's fourth-order Blood Vessel, and advancing another 1 cm reached the tumor.

The microcatheter began to advance; because it is thicker and softer, a fine, stiff guidewire must first establish a path, then the microcatheter is threaded over the guidewire, following the already super-selected guidewire straight to the front of the tumor.

The movements were gentle, precise, without the slightest error.

Professor Pei focused on the images; although he didn't continue praising Zheng Ren, his face was full of appreciation.

Even if I were to go up myself, I'd probably only be at this level; I never expected that this small place Hai Cheng hides crouching tigers and hidden dragons, with such talent.

The microcatheter pointed directly at the tumor; Su Yun closed the imaging system, left hand supporting the latter half of the microguidewire and microcatheter, right hand raised, gave a greeting.

Xie Yiren understood, opened the heavy sensing Lead door, entered the Catheter operating room and began preparing the chemotherapy drug.

Because the outcome of the surgery was uncertain, the chemotherapy drugs had to be prepared fresh.

Liver cancer, unlike most cancers, does not have first- or second-line chemotherapy drugs that work relatively well. It is a very special cancer; many years ago, aside from surgical resection, there was no other option.

In the past ten-odd years, interventional treatment has become available, and with the successful development of targeted drugs such as sorafenib, liver cancer patients have been given a first-line hope of rebirth.

But clinical research by the older generation of medical workers found that, when performing embolization of the tumor-feeding vessels in liver cancer, injecting a certain amount of chemotherapy drug improves postoperative outcomes.

One can easily know that chemotherapy drugs are "poisons," with the principle of using poison to counteract poison. Before embolization ends, infusing chemotherapy drugs into the tumor, then blocking the vessel: first, the tumor cells are soaked in "poison," which inevitably has some effect; second, the feeding vessels are embolized, cutting off fresh blood supply, so the tumor loses nutrients.

Dual approach, effect is very good.

Xie Yiren acted swiftly, quickly prepared the chemotherapy drug, mounted it on a high-pressure syringe, then gave Zheng Ren an encouraging gesture, turned and left the Interventional operating room, closing the heavy Lead door.

Infusing chemotherapy drugs, iodized oil embolization, proceeding step by step.

After doing all this, Zheng Ren began angiography.

The meaning of this angiography is the same as flushing with warm saline after surgery; both are to check for any omissions in the procedure.

Professor Pei was relaxed, chuckling: "I originally thought I'd have to go up and do the super-selective procedure myself, but I didn't expect this young comrade to manage it."

"All right, all right." Director Pan's face broke into a smile like a flower.

After embolization, the angiography images appeared simultaneously before Zheng Ren's eyes in the Operating Room and on the large screen in the control area.

Professor Pei's smile just now became somewhat unnatural.

Zheng Yunxia's liver tumor was solitary but large, about 8 cm in diameter, nearly half the height of the liver.

A repeat angiography showed that the lower half of the tumor mass had disappeared, indicating successful embolization.

But!

The upper half of the tumor mass remains!

"Hiss..." Professor Pei's face grew grave.

"Professor Pei, this is..." Director Pan, although he had recently studied up on interventional knowledge, being over sixty, his energy and memory are not as good as a young person's; plus he lacks hands-on experience, so he cannot accurately judge what the situation is.

"There is a deviation in the pre-operative imaging data." Professor Pei pointed at the tumor image on the large screen and said: "The feeding vessel for the lower part of the tumor is a branch of the hepatic Artery, but the upper part should be supplied by blood vessels outside the liver."

"What could it be?" Director Pan asked.

"I don't know; any blood vessel in the body could potentially supply the tumor—this is a characteristic of tumor tissue." Professor Pei shook his head, his expression somewhat grave: "The most troublesome is that a branch of the spinal cord's feeding vessel could be supplying the liver tumor. If that were the case, even if we found it and forcibly embolized, postoperative ectopic embolism could likely occur, leading to patient paralysis."

"……" Director Pan.

"……" Manager Feng.

"……" Chu Family Sisters.

Only Xie Yiren blinked her eyes, showing no sign of worry; perhaps she has an inexplicable trust in Zheng Ren.

In her mind, there is no surgery that Chief Zheng cannot perform.

"Of course, being able to determine which vessel feeds it is good; the difficulty lies in finding the feeding vessel, which comes down to luck." Professor Pei shook his head again.

Soon, Zheng Ren appeared in the control area wearing sterile surgical attire.

"Professor Pei, what do you think?" Zheng Ren said succinctly.

"If you lack confidence, we should end the surgery now." Professor Pei stared into Zheng Ren's eyes behind his lead glasses, speaking seriously: "Although not completely successful, it is still a successful tumor-reduction operation that can extend the patient's survival by three to six months."

Zheng Ren said nothing.

"Another option is to locate the feeding vessel for the upper part of the tumor, but that is very difficult."

The Chu Family Sisters and Xie Yiren naturally did not want just a tumor-reduction surgery; over these days of interaction, they have become friends with Zheng Yunxia. Regardless of whether from a friend's or a medical worker's perspective, they hope to achieve complete embolization of the tumor.

But!

The operator of an interventional procedure must bear some radiation exposure.

Although wearing Lead clothing, if the surgery is short, the body's functions can still offset this effect; but as the surgery lengthens, operating under continuous X-ray exposure, even an ironclad person cannot withstand it.

Standing for twelve hours in surgery versus twelve hours in interventional procedures are entirely different concepts.

Surgical operations may be tiring, but standing for twelve hours in an interventional procedure can be deadly!

Everyone fell silent.

Persuade Zheng Ren to continue?

Persuade Zheng Ren to give up Shou Bing?

In a dilemma!

"I'll try again." Zheng Ren nodded without hesitation and said firmly.