My Medical Skills Give Me Experience Points

Chapter 1109 - 437: Some Rejoice, Some Sorrow; Challenging Tetralogy of Fallot (Part 3)

Director Xue Yan smiled and replied.

"Sister Yan, call me anytime you need, don't worry about me being tired from work."

Zhou Can could feel her thoughtfulness.

Tetralogy of Fallot is the most common type of cyanotic congenital heart disease.

If not surgically intervened, patients usually do not live past seven years old. The average life expectancy of children with this disease is only about twelve years.

It is mostly manifested when the child is three to six months old, showing cyanosis.

The face, lips, nails, fingertips, and even the whole body can exhibit cyanosis.

Especially when the child cries, the cyanosis is particularly severe.

Medically, this disease used to be considered incurable. Later, some doctors pioneered cardiac surgery, continuously exploring, and eventually found a surgical method to treat this congenital heart disease.

So-called Tetralogy of Fallot refers to pulmonary artery stenosis, ventricular septal defect, overriding aorta, and right ventricle hypertrophy.

Any of these lesions would be enough to be called congenital heart disease.

The combination of all four symptoms also geometrically increases the difficulty of treatment.

Surgical treatment is the only option for treating this disease.

Without surgery, the children are highly likely to die.

Since this disease is a congenital heart defect, when children are young, they may not be able to undergo surgery due to poor development or unsuitable physical conditions.

In this situation, it is generally impossible to complete the curative surgery in one go.

Experienced surgeons often choose to perform a palliative surgery first. First, they ensure the child's life is safe, and when the child grows older and the tolerance is stronger, and the surgical conditions are mature, then a second operation is performed for a thorough cure.

In Zhou Can's memory, Director Xue Yan never dared to tackle surgeries of this difficulty before.

This time, daring to challenge a Tetralogy of Fallot surgery also shows that she has full confidence in her surgical skills.

"Sister Yan, have you checked the child's coronary arteries?"

After Zhou Can finished looking through the child's basic information, he asked.

"Yes, the child's coronary angiography is right below."

Xue Yan knew Zhou Can never asked questions without reason.

Since he asked, there must be a point.

"Can this surgery be done?"

Currently, the child has only been anesthetized, and the surgery hasn't started yet.

"Don't worry, I just want to see where the origin of the left anterior descending coronary artery is. If the child's left anterior descending artery originates from the right coronary artery, then this surgery might not be possible. Moreover, if the development of the child's left and right pulmonary arteries and surrounding pulmonary arteries is abnormal, the surgery cannot be done as well."

Zhou Can provided his opinion.

Xue Yan listened, smiling warmly, "I knew having you here would be reliable. You can help us again with any issues. Rest assured, I've checked these two contraindications; there's no problem."

Even though she had already checked, Zhou Can was still a bit uneasy and reviewed it again.

Fortunately, this child did not have the two mentioned conditions.

"How is his left ventricle development?"

Zhou Can asked again.

"Not bad, it can reach normal levels. But it's not particularly outstanding."

"Then there's no problem. Has the patient's preoperative fluid intake been adequate?"

Zhou Can pressed the child's skin, it had decent elasticity.

"It's adequate."

This time, it was the circulating nurse who answered.

"Alright, I don't have any more questions."

Zhou Can looked at Director Xue Yan.

It meant waiting for her to give the order.

"Anesthesia, can we start now?"

In surgery, directly calling the anesthesiologist by their role is not impolite, but rather for communication ease.

Especially when there are multiple doctors with the same surname in the operating room, people prefer using "anesthesia" to address the anesthesiologist.

"The child's vital signs are stable, and they are in a complete anesthesia state, ready for surgery."

"Then let's begin! As usual, Dr. Zhou Can will take over at critical moments as the primary surgeon, everyone else prepare your stations."

Director Xue Yan brought him here not only for overseeing together but also for Zhou Can's assistance at critical times.

Today, Zhou Can's multifaceted surgical skills have reached the intermediate level of the deputy director, possibly even advanced level. Combined with his Fast Knife Skill and Stable Knife Technique, his capabilities are not inferior to a top-tier surgical chief physician.