Chapter 1284: with translation of chapter title

1246 Tender tofu, feel it to do

Quan Xiaocao saw an anatomy she had never seen before behind Zheng Lao Ban

The peritoneum and white connective tissue were tightly adhered, leaving no operating field at all. Yet Zheng Lao Ban was not in a hurry; the blunt scissors and hemostatic forceps in his hand slowly spread, sometimes using the blunt scissors, sometimes using his fingers to dissect and loosen

The surgery did not pause because of the complex abnormal anatomy, but proceeded calmly, as if performing an extremely simple appendectomy

Is Zheng Lao Ban's skill really that high? Quan Xiaocao was somewhat surprised

Originally Professor Feng's skill was already high; when Quan Xiaocao first saw it, she thought it was divine. But after seeing Director Wei's surgery, it refreshed her worldview

But every time she saw Zheng Lao Ban perform surgery, it would refresh her cognition anew

This Zheng Lao Ban looks no older than a few years older than me; how can he be so skilled?

Zheng Ren slowly dissected and loosened the connective tissue; after several minutes, the peritoneal adhesions were finally fully opened

Protecting the peritoneum requires great force. At this point, the advantage of a large incision is fully displayed

"Well, this person..." Zheng Ren, having finished protecting the peritoneum, wanted to say something to Quan Xiaocao, but suddenly realized he didn't know her name

"What's your name?"

"Zheng Lao Ban, I'm Quan Xiaocao; my classmates jokingly call me Xiao Cao Jun, you can just call me Xiao Cao." Quan Xiaocao answered somewhat excitedly. After over a month and about ten extremely difficult surgeries, Zheng Lao Ban finally noticed her existence

"Oh, Xiao Cao, here, do you understand the significance of a large incision now?" Zheng Ren continued to dissect and loosen the white connective tissue as he asked

"Mm." Quan Xiaocao nodded firmly

After her forehead accidentally bumped Zheng Ren's shoulder, Quan Xiaocao was frightened to the point her heart almost stopped

If bumping the surgeon's shoulder were to tear the intestine all at once, I'd probably be fired

Nothing happened; Zheng Lao Ban's shoulder is as solid as a mountain—how could he care about a little grass swaying in the wind?

She touched her chest, cautiously observing the operating field. Perhaps the steps of the surgery aren't critical; it's fine, fine, she reassured herself

Zheng Lao Ban clamped a piece of intestinal tissue with his left hand's hemostatic forceps, delicately dissecting it

Quan Xiaocao was speechless

If this isn't a critical step, what is? For gastroenterology surgery, dissecting and loosening the intestine is the most difficult; if another professor were doing the surgery and I touched it like this, I'd probably be scolded terribly

Zheng Lao Ban truly has a good temper, Quan Xiaocao thought

"Director Wei, use the large tweezers gently, just clamp an edge. Yes, just like that." While performing surgery, Zheng Ren spoke to Director Wei

It seemed as if standing on the operating table were a mild-tempered chief and an inpatient chief, only their roles had been swapped

Director Wei also felt nothing improper about this; everything was as it should be

After opening the abdominal cavity, Director Wei let out a sigh of relief. Professor Feng's choice was correct; for this rare disease, one must seek Zheng Lao Ban

If it were me and Feng Jianguo on the operating table, we'd probably be completely at a loss by now

The most likely scenario is to just open and close it, performing a switch procedure, then afterwards tell the patient's family that we've done our best

No surgeon would willingly say that, but when forced, one really has to explain it to the patient's family like that

Admitting defeat is far better than after opening, tearing the intestine, which would ultimately cause a severe infection

In the current medical environment, not taking risks is the best choice

Looking at Zheng Lao Ban, he appears completely confident, as if he has performed this surgery countless times

This is the bearing of a great commander; Director Wei admired it in his heart

"Director Wei, be gentle." Zheng Ren's hemostatic forceps tapped against Director Wei's large tweezers; the tweezers didn't move at all, producing a clear sound

After the previous surgery, Zheng Ren also reflected on it. Tapping a chief on the operating table, a 912 chief, seemed somewhat insufficiently solemn

Does a chief not care about face? Surely not

Above all, don't make Director Wei angry; it's better to tap the instruments instead

"Uh..." Director Wei stared for a moment; I didn't use any force, so why does Zheng Lao Ban still think I'm using force?

"Director Wei, first retract the tweezers; I'll handle this here." Zheng Ren said calmly: "The patient's condition is rather special; just take a look and you'll roughly understand what's going on"

Director Wei retracted the large tweezers full of suspicion, but instead of handing them to Xie Yiren, he held them in his hand

This set of instruments is exquisite, precise, and delicate to the extreme; Director Wei gazed at them longingly

Although one cannot possess them long-term, touching them a bit more during surgery is also good

"Here, the intestinal wall is severely edematous; it must be handled gently." Zheng Ren's hemostatic forceps were also put away, and he exchanged them for a small blunt scissors similar to those used in ophthalmology, extending it between the connective tissue and the intestinal wall to dissect

These scissors are really small, Director Wei lamented. Zheng Lao Ban's fingers can't fully extend into them; he only uses the pads of his fingers to rest on the edge. In this situation, would the surgery's precision be affected?

But his thought did not become reality

With a small blunt scissors, each step is invisible; one can only see Zheng Lao Ban's fingers moving minutely, so gently

This isn't performing surgery; it's feeling the surgery...

Director Wei is skilled at using large tweezers and at using his fingers to dissect and loosen intestinal adhesions. But precisely because he is skilled, he better understands how difficult Zheng Lao Ban's approach is

It's incredibly precise; without an operating field, blindly performing such delicate dissection—is that really possible?

After dissecting about 1 cm, Zheng Ren used the scissors to cut the connective tissue

The intestine suddenly bulged out

The entire intestinal wall was severely congested and edematous, with extremely high pressure; Director Wei understood Zheng Ren's intention

He had seen this kind of intestine before and had even operated on it. The intestinal wall is like a layer of tender tofu, breaking at the slightest touch

The key is that after it's punctured, there's still no way to handle it

If one tried to suture it with needle and thread, not even a knot could be tied; with just a little force, the intestinal wall would tear in large sheets

Let alone tying a knot; even if sutured, if the angle of the needle going in and coming out is slightly off, it will cause large sheets of the intestinal wall to tear

Until the damage grows larger and larger, the surgery can only be declared a failure

Therefore, this kind of intestine is called "tender tofu" by gastroenterology surgery

Since working in gastroenterology surgery, after seeing this kind of case once, Director Wei has refused to eat any tofu, especially tender tofu

Seeing it would bring bad associations, so they simply quit.

Although all soft tofu is somewhat tougher than this kind of intestine, he doesn't even want to look at it. If such a situation were encountered on the operating table, the only thing waiting for him would be to close the abdomen, announcing the failure of the Shou Bing.