Chapter 88 - 0086 Advanced Sports Medicine
She truly had done them a huge favor. Although it wasn’t directed at herself, she had certainly helped the department and the hospital.
Yang Ping sat in the meeting room for a while until Little Five called to inform her that the anesthesia was ready for the patient, only then did she head to the operating room.
Upon entering the operating room, she saw Director Ouyang, President Guo, and Xiao Lei all hurriedly exiting the place.
Li Jingshu must have informed the hospital about the situation. Thus, the hospital administration had these individuals summoned for an explanation.
The hospital would naturally handle these matters. All she needed to worry about was ensuring her surgery went smoothly; knowing her own limits, she must do her part well. Yang Ping found comfort in this realisation.
When she arrived at the operating room, the patient was already under anesthesia. With Song Zimo and Little Five as well as Zhang Lin, there was no need for her to step into the operating theater. She decided to rest at the side.
Director Tan and Dr. Zhong casually walked about the operating room, offering to lend a hand upon any request.
Director Bai from another operating room was facing difficulties with a hip socket surgery and sent a standardised training student to invite Director Tan over for guidance. Without hesitation, Director Tan took the responsibility of going over to assist. This was part of being a Director, stepping in to save a surgery when others encountered difficulties.
When Director Tan reached Director Bai’s operation room, Director Bai said, “Director Tan, this hip socket is trouble. He’s only a sixteen-year-old boy, his fracture is melding too quickly. The area is filled with bone calluses which makes it difficult to do the anatomical repositioning.”
Being unable to perform an anatomical repositioning means a traumatic arthritis could persist. This scenario was generally unacceptable for bone fractures.
“Let me take a look,” Director Tan was very proactive, “Hang on, I’ll wash my hands and come up on stage.”
Although his official appointment only started next month, since he was officially on duty now, he had an obligation to act.
After washing his hands and dressing up, Director Tan got on stage, “Let me see.”
Director Bai relinquished the spot of the chief surgeon, allowing Director Tan to take over.
Indeed, extensive calluses were causing the original fracture surfaces to be indistinguishable, making putting the fragments back together difficult!
“Oh, for how long has this old fracture been?”
“Four weeks!” said Fatty, Director Bai’s attending physician.
If the fragments didn’t mend well and traumatic arthritis occurred, the young patient would likely experience a lifetime of hip joint pain. Most doctors wish to perform their surgeries perfectly. However, the reality was that it was often difficult to do so.
Bone cutter! said Tan Boyun.
Once he had the bone cutter, he delicately started to chisel away bit by bit, softly touching the bone callus with a vascular clamp after chiseling a portion, gently pressing it. The bone callus was different from original bone shards and needed to be distinctly differentiated. For example, the hardness differs when touched with a vascular clamp.
As the bits of bone fragments were removed one by one, they were attended to and all remaining calluses removed, so as to reveal the original shape of the bone shards.
The fragments fit together perfectly like a freshly fractured bone. There were neither steps nor fissures.
“You can continue now, call me if there is an issue.” Without any intention to continue, Tan Boyun gave his directions. The crucial steps were complete and it was unnecessary to use a sledgehammer to crack a nut.
He didn’t even ask for Director Bai’s opinion; he simply took off his surgical gown and gloves, threw them into the collection bucket, and reminded,”You don’t need to attend to the bone fragments anymore. Over-attendance will result in gaps. I’ve repositioned them well, you can proceed with the fixation.”
Having said that, he left for the operating rooms of Director Ouyang and Director Ding.
“Tan Boyun’s reputation is well-earned!” Fatty commented.
Director Bai gave him a cold glance.
Fatty responded with a wide grin, “Still, no one can beat you, Director.”
Yang Ping said her goodbyes to Song Zimo, informing him she would be resting in the resting room and to call her if there were difficulties.
Arriving at the rest area, he laid down on the long bench, entered the system, and found the page on sports medicine surgery training gleaming faintly with golden light, finally unlocked.
Most sports medicine surgeries are conducted with an arthroscope, such as the suturing of the meniscus in the knee and the reconstruction of the cruciate ligament.
The arthroscope is a type of endoscope, belonging to minimally invasive surgery. It doesn’t require incisions, and with a few small holes, the size of chopsticks, the surgery is done. Compared with traditional surgery, learning endoscopic surgery is more difficult and the learning curve is longer.
He was always an assistant before, holding the mirror and watching others perform arthroscopy surgery, eager to try but never got the chance, not even the chance to perform a simple arthroscopic examination.
Now he can learn arthroscopic surgery in the system space, which is exceedingly exciting.
Just like a child yearning for a beloved toy, dreaming about it day and night, one day finally being granted their wish.
There are still thirty thousand points accumulated from tasks, and several thousand points gathered from daily activities. Altogether, they sum up to over thirty thousand points, which is currently quite a lot.
Yang Ping reviewed the surgical training items one by one, selecting a three-month basic arthroscopy training package, costing six thousand points, neither expensive nor cheap.
Entering the system space, Yang Ping began the arthroscopy training.
The operation of the arthroscope involves separating the hand and the eye, technically referred to as triangulation.
Normally, when we work, the hand and eye are in sync. The eye directly observes the target, acquiring information that is sent to the brain, and then the brain directs the hand to manipulate the target.
This pathway is a physiological loop in humans: Target-Eye-Brain-Hand-Target, with the starting point and endpoint being the same, straightforward.
However, with arthroscopy, this pathway is different. The eye sees the video; the video is transmitted to the brain; the brain issues instructions based on the information from the video, directing the hand to manipulate the target.
Video-Eye-Brain-Hand-Target; the starting point and endpoint don’t match; it contradicts the human physiological loop. The human body cannot adapt to this; it must be learned.
This requires repeated and arduous training to become proficient.
With two hands, one holds the camera lens, the other holds the instrument. Both are inserted into the joint through two small holes. The lens records what is happening inside the joint, transmitting it in real-time to the screen, while the instrument is responsible for manipulating the surgical target.
The lens has a field of view, which it can see within; but outside this field, it can’t see. The instrument must first enter this field. Only after entering the field, will it be captured by the camera, displayed on the screen and ready for subsequent actions.
Though the process seems simple, it is very difficult to operate. Many beginners learning arthroscopy take a long time to guide the instrument into the field of view. Once it moves out of sight, they need another long period of time to adjust.
Because the lens and the instrument are inside the joint cavity, the screen only displays what the lens captures, not the lens itself. Introducing the instrument into the lens’s field of view is a blind operation, relying entirely on spatial perceptions.
First, practice on the knee joint, then the shoulder joint. Once proficient with these two, the other joints will be easy.
Although practicing in the system does not consume time or energy, the psychological experience of the passage of time remains consistent with reality.
Undergoing three months of continuous training is something not everyone can tolerate.
But Yang Ping has a natural endurance, able to perform surgery in the system space nonstop, repeatedly training until he becomes incredibly skilled.
In the afternoon, everyone finished their surgeries.
Zhang Lin and Liang Fatty were hiding in the bathroom to smoke and got caught by Song Zimo.
“You two, there’s a smoking room for that. Why must you hide in the toilet to smoke?” Song Zimo chastised.
“Smoking room? Seeing the words ‘smoking room’ on the door, it dulls the feeling. Smoking should be done slyly, hiding in the bathroom, that brings a sense of thrill. This is part of cigarette culture, you guys wouldn’t understand.” Liang Fatty defended himself confidently, even involving ‘cigarette culture’.
“Did you check WeChat?” Zhang Lin extinguished his cigarette.
The group sent a message, a meeting in the teaching room for all of the trauma orthopedics, no one is allowed to be absent.
“Big news! Definitely big news! The phrase ‘no one is allowed to be absent’ is not typically used unless there’s major announcement,” Zhang Lin said.