Chapter 135: Mature Lu Cheng!
There were three emergency operating rooms, the view under the shadowless lamps was bright, the muscles were red, the fat was yellow, and the residual blood was dark red.
After Lu Cheng tied the last knot of the tendon suturing, he asked, “Teacher Tian, what’s the situation in operating rooms one and two?”
Anesthesiologist Tian Chao looked up, “The injuries here are all minor. The severe cases have all been sent to the surgical operating rooms.”
“We only have four anesthesiologists in the emergency operating rooms in total, how can we handle so many?”
“Operating room one is being handled by orthopedics with their team. Operating room two is where your emergency department’s Zhang Tiesheng is doing debridement and suturing. Operating room three is for General Surgery’s Cao Yongqiang.”
“Operating room four seems to be Director Tian Hongjian of orthopedics.” Tian Chao hadn’t been to operating room four, so he told Lu Cheng the names of the surgeons he had heard about.
While Tian Chao was speaking, Du Daihua hurried over, “Brother Lu, I’ve come to help.”
“You’ve come at the right time. Dai Hua, you and Tian Zhuang continue with the remaining suturing. I’ve finished with the hemostasis, debridement, and tendon suturing.”
“Remember to apply a polymer plaster cast to the left forearm later. There’s nothing else special. The patient can be transferred back to the ward after the surgery.”
“Wash your hands and get on the table. I’ll go to operating room one.” Lu Cheng stood up, stepped back two steps from the operating table, then leaned forward again, carefully examining the details of the debridement.
Finally, he walked over to the laundry and linen bin for the operating rooms and began to take off his sterile surgical gown, his movements agile.
Tian Zhuang said, “Brother Lu, call me if you need any help later.”
“Okay!” Lu Cheng nodded, took off his gloves, picked up his mobile phone from the stainless steel shelf, and hurried towards operating room one.
There weren’t many operating rooms in the emergency department, only four.
Because Long County generally didn’t have such a high volume of emergencies, some emergency cases would be admitted to the surgical operating rooms by the specialty departments.
Lu Cheng first went to the sink outside to re-disinfect his hands, held them at chest level, and stepped through the automatic sensor door of the operating room.
As Lu Cheng looked up, he recognized that the chief surgeon was Luo Changwu from Orthopedics District One, and the assistant was Ouyang Meng, a new orthopedic doctor recruited after Lu Cheng had applied for his transfer.
“Director Luo, what’s the situation here?” Lu Cheng asked as he walked towards the gowning area, trying to save as much time as possible.
Luo Changwu was a Deputy Chief Physician in Orthopedics District One who specialized in spines. He had extensive connections but was not eccentric. “This kid’s luck is both good and bad. Fortunately, only his left hand is injured.”
“The bad part is that there are four cuts of varying sizes on his left hand.”
“The cuts on the palm, the cuts on the palm, are not shallow.”
“But luckily, the digital arteries of his fingers were not injured. However, the superficial palmar arch was injured, and I am currently performing debridement.”
“We’ve also requested Director Peng to see if Professor Tong can come to help, as the situation is quite serious if the suturing of the superficial palmar arch is not done well.”
“But Director Peng said that Professor Tong is currently operating on a finger replantation.”
Tong Yuan’an was eventually called over by Peng Haibo because the situation was difficult for the hospital to handle.
Lu Cheng replied, “The difficulty of suturing the superficial palmar arch is not particularly high, and it doesn’t require microsurgery. Professor Tong probably isn’t needed.”
“You can handle it too, Xiao Lu?” Luo Changwu’s tone was surprised, his gaze sweeping over Lu Cheng.
Lu Cheng casually replied, “Brother Luo, for this kind of superficial palmar arch injury, before Professor Tong arrived, didn’t we also routinely suture it?”
“As long as there’s no bleeding, it won’t be too bad.”
Long County People’s Hospital could perform debridement and suturing of the palm, but it was impossible for patients to achieve particularly good recovery after surgery.
However, some patients didn’t care about the specific functional recovery after surgery and were unwilling to be referred, as their treatment endpoint was at the county hospital, and they were too lazy to travel further.
Some people even gave up on treatment if they encountered an illness that couldn’t be cured at the county hospital.
Luo Changwu thought for a moment, and finally nodded, “This vascular injury seems like it can’t wait either, so let’s start suturing.”
Lu Cheng said, “Let’s not rush. Director Luo, after we finish the tendon and muscle suturing, it will be fine to perform the vascular suturing.”
“The patient’s injury time is not long, so we can deal with the vascular bed first, and then the vessels. If we suture the vessels first and then perform tendon and muscle suturing, it could cause compression on the vessels!”
Professor Zhong from Xiehe Hospital had meticulously taught Lu Cheng the order of limb replantation and the underlying principles of that order.
Knowledge should be applied flexibly, and it’s not that such principles only need to be followed for limb replantation.
“Then it has to be you, Xiao Lu. Peng Kun said he couldn’t handle the tendons in this area.”
The flexor tendons in the palm segment belong to Zone III. While their handling difficulty is not as high as the ‘no man’s land’ of Zone II, they still require the Tsuge Method and the modified Tang method for treatment.
Peng Kun was still practicing these two techniques. Currently, only under the guidance of Tong Yuan’an did Peng Kun dare to suture one or two.
With insufficient skill, Peng Kun dared not operate independently.
Lu Cheng, however, had already performed many such operations as the chief surgeon, and had even handled the more difficult flexor tendon suturing in Zone II. This disparity immediately made Luo Changwu clearly see the gap between Lu Cheng and Peng Kun.
A formidable individual like Lu Cheng, once given an opportunity, could not be suppressed; one could only try to foster a good relationship with him.
The underlying logic of operations at the county hospital is to live by one’s skills, prioritizing ability!
“It’s fine, no rush. I’ll check the other traumas,” Lu Cheng said, putting on a sterile surgical gown and gloves and approaching, but he didn’t start suturing immediately.
Instead, he carefully and cautiously examined the patient’s wound.
Understanding the patient’s condition before operating is a must for every chief surgeon.
“There’s a rupture of the distal biceps tendon and also a rupture of the brachioradialis tendon.”
“Was he cornered?” Lu Cheng was greatly taken aback.
Injuries in these areas were defensive wounds, intended to prevent fatal blows to the head.
Luo Changwu looked indifferently at the lying ‘trash’, “The mechanism of injury is not important; healing the wound is.”
Lu Cheng was silent for a moment before saying, “Director Luo, then I’ll start from near to far and deal with it slowly…”
After Ouyang Meng yielded his position to Lu Cheng, a brilliance flashed in his eyes.
Although he hadn’t worked with Lu Cheng before, after joining the department and experiencing the atmosphere, he felt that Senior Lu Cheng was exceptionally brave and bold.
He directly transferred to the emergency department and then made a significant move against orthopedics.
First, he handled tendon injuries that orthopedics couldn’t, and then he even took over some of the orthopedic surgeries for fractures in the emergency department…
The crucial point was that so many people in orthopedics couldn’t even utter a word!
They didn’t dare to find fault!
If Lu Cheng was the chief surgeon, took responsibility, had the title, and the surgical authorization, and still performed well, what could orthopedics do?
Wrong him? Frame the system-bound Lu Cheng to death?
If they couldn’t get Lu Cheng’s patients onto the operating table, how could they frame him?
It was impossible!
Lu Cheng’s sharp demeanor, piercing gaze, and graceful operations were so skilled that Ouyang Meng couldn’t understand them but was intensely envious.
Lu Cheng noticed Ouyang Meng’s gaze and expression but paid no mind. At this moment, he didn’t care about the identity of the patient lying there!
Once a patient arrives at the hospital, their identity is that of a patient. Lu Cheng saw their wounds, and these wounds were unrelated to whether the patient was a thug or not.
Naturally, Lu Cheng’s current skill in tendon suturing was sufficient to conquer all tendon injury competitions.
While not absolutely the best, covering all details meticulously, in terms of suturing strength, Lu Cheng dared to claim he was the world’s best.
It was just unfortunate that medicine wasn’t about single-aspect strength, and the efficacy of tendon suturing wasn’t particularly directly related to suturing tension.
Instead, it required meticulously handling every step to the extreme; it was a synthesis of theoretical knowledge, the basic skills of tendon suturing, and a thorough understanding of tendon function.
Therefore, although Lu Cheng’s suturing techniques were good, it could only be said that the success rate was high, not that the recovery was the best.
For tendon suturing, the proficiency in tendon suturing techniques was like inner strength, and the techniques were like fighting moves.
Fighting moves could only increase attack power to a certain extent and couldn’t affect the fundamental damage.
