Famous Among Top Surgeons in the 90s
Chapter 710 - Chapter 710 【710】Estimate Volume

Chapter 710: [(710)] Estimate Volume Chapter 710: [(710)] Estimate Volume Well-founded, logical, and entirely based on practical viewpoints. It’s clear that those who can combine academics and clinical practice are exceptional, right?

“I feel like she is definitely good at writing papers,” someone remarked.

When it comes to writing papers, female medical students seem to have a certain advantage in organizing language compared to male medical students. However, in terms of the number of published papers, male doctors have always held an absolute dominance. After all, they have more say in clinical matters.

Perhaps Associate Director Xue was entertaining a similar thought, considering that even if this female student’s answer was excellent, she would likely end up like the other female students, relegated to writing papers for the team and the lab. He didn’t question her further. Instead, he turned to Song Xueling and asked, “What size liver do we need now? Obviously, we don’t need the entire liver at this moment.”

It was Talented Scholar Song’s turn to answer. His seniors looked on with high expectations.

Gazing at the donor liver, Song Xueling’s dark brown eyes narrowed as if he were a precise instrument measuring the liver. His slightly hoarse voice, imbued with a strong academic flavor, said, “Generally speaking, the right lobe of the liver is relatively larger, accounting for about fifty-five percent of the whole liver. The recipient of our surgery weighs only 100 Jin, needing only 0.8 percent of their weight in donor liver, which is about 400 grams. Compared to that, the donor’s liver weighs around 1500 grams; either the left or the right lobe would be sufficient for the recipient. The problem is cutting only half would mean wasting the other half.”

Therefore, the 0.8 percent of donor weight required for liver transplantation refers to the absolute minimum value. In practice, during surgery, it’s best if the donor liver is equal in size or slightly smaller than the recipient’s own liver.

If we consider this latter standard and take into account that the current patient is suffering from advanced liver cirrhosis, meaning the liver is reduced in size, and we use the current body weight of 100 Jin to estimate liver weight, by calculating 2 percent of body weight, the normal liver weight should be around 1000 grams.

The specific size also has to account for the space available in the recipient’s abdominal cavity for the liver transplant, to accommodate the volume of the donor liver.

Cutting a 1500-gram liver down to 1000 grams is equivalent to removing one-third, which is a test of the surgeon’s technical skill and operative thinking.

After hearing Song Xueling’s quick calculations, Associate Director Xue nodded in satisfaction, clearly impressed by this newcomer’s strong theoretical foundation and rapid calculating ability, and said, “What do you think is the best approach to cutting this 1500-gram liver? Some say it has fatty liver; what’s your opinion on that?”

The donor’s liver was visibly oversized, leading Qiu Ruiyun to suspect mild or moderate fatty liver disease. The question was whether it was possible to cut off the fatty liver portion before transplanting the remaining healthy part to the recipient, essentially achieving a perfect transplant.

Song Xueling answered, “Fatty liver is a benign condition, characterized by focal or nodular accumulation of fat around blood vessels, but most fatty livers are diffusely and uniformly distributed. Therefore, I don’t think there’s a separate fat region that we can just remove.”

“You’re certain there isn’t one?” Associate Director Xue asked, looking at his face.

“Yes, I think there isn’t. A weight of 1500 grams is still considered within the normal range for a male liver. Some people’s normal liver weight can reach up to 2000 grams,” Song Xueling replied.

After listening to him, Associate Director Xue also concluded that there was no such perfect opportunity for removal.