Surgery Godfather
Chapter 1019 - 844 Hurry and Transfer Departments! _2

Chapter 1019: Chapter 844 Hurry and Transfer Departments! _2

Yang Ping thought he had grasped a clue, and Dr. Chen asked, "Have you found something?"

Yang Ping pointed to a clear, magnified shot on the video and said, "Look, there’s slight atrophy of the intestinal villi. Without any other cause, I suspect it’s autoimmune enteritis affecting the smooth muscle of the intestines, but I’m not sure at this point. Shall we take a look at the pathology slides?"

Autoimmune enteritis affecting smooth muscle—Dr. Chen hadn’t considered this condition, as all tests hadn’t shown any significant abnormalities.

After Yang Ping’s suggestion, Dr. Chen went back to examine the colonoscopy video, indeed noticing mild atrophy of the villi in the small intestine. However, this wasn’t particularly unusual or specific. The patient frequently experienced diarrhea and malabsorption of nutrients in the small intestine, indicating degeneration in its absorptive function, so it was normal for the villi to degenerate too, giving no specific indication.

"When there are no leads, even the weakest link must be magnified," said Yang Ping.

Usually, such minor villous atrophy in the small intestine would be disregarded, but now, in the absence of other leads, this clue had to be given significance and its value amplified.

After watching the video, Yang Ping suggested they go to examine the pathology slides, and Director Fang and Dr. Chen followed along.

Upon arriving at the Pathology Department, they happened to meet Director Guan. He had been sitting and reviewing pathology slides for too long and took the opportunity to rest, doing neck exercises in the corner. After Yang Ping explained their purpose, Director Guan said, "For this case, you need to find Wen Ruzheng. He’s even better at this than I am."

Director Guan then called for Wen Ruzheng, and a response came from the resting room.

"Right here, come on in."

Director Guan valued Wen Ruzheng highly, showered him with care, and was interested in grooming him to take over as director. The Pathology Department was not the most popular and was short of talent, so they cherished having a young person so dedicated to the specialty.

Yang Ping pushed the door open to see Dr. Wen lifting dumbbells to work on his biceps, which explained the muscle he sported when running shirtless.

"Professor Yang!"

Seeing Yang Ping enter, Wen Ruzheng quickly set down the dumbbells.

"You seem to have a relaxing job if you have time to work out," Yang Ping, alongside Dr. Chen and Director Fang, each found a seat.

Wen Ruzheng replied, "That’s essential. If I have to run shirtless again, I might as well show off a fit physique. What brings Professor Yang to our remote corner today for an inspection?"

"I’ve got some work for you. There’s a pathology slice from a patient that might have a slight issue. We’ve come down to take a look. Dr. Wen, could you help us examine it?" Yang Ping explained the reason for their visit.

Examining pathology slides was Wen Ruzheng’s favorite thing. Excitement flashed in his eyes before turning into skepticism: "It’s not another bet, is it?"

"You’ve been working out well lately, so what are you afraid of? Now’s your chance to show off the results of your recent training," Yang Ping teased, mimicking the posture of someone making a bet.

Wen Ruzheng quickly waved his hands dismissively: "I’m not quite there yet with my physique, Professor Yang. Maybe give me a little more time?"

Dr. Chen and Director Fang laughed on the side, not expecting to see Wen Ruzheng hesitate. Normally, he was quite confident—especially in matters related to his specialty. It was said that at a national pathology academic conference, he, as an unknown young doctor, directly argued with a big shot, causing quite a scene and leaving the big shot embarrassed.

"Alright then, just let me know when you’re ready. I’ve been wanting to show off my muscles too, so you’ve got to give me a chance," Yang Ping said in a way that left Wen Ruzheng without a retort.

"Which patient?" Wen Ruzheng quickly got to the point.

Dr. Chen immediately passed a slip of paper with the patient’s name, hospital number, department, and bed number.

Wen Ruzheng put on a white gown and casually asked an intern to fetch the pathology slides. The intern returned with a stack of slides, as the patient had undergone multiple sampling points in the intestinal tract with each sampling represented by a slide, resulting in a pile of pathology slides.

"Professor Yang, how about this—we each look at the slides separately, and afterwards, we write down our observations and diagnosis on paper. Then we compare them. Let’s be clear, this isn’t a bet, it’s purely an academic exchange," Wen Ruzheng suggested, taking a seat at the microscope and gesturing for Yang Ping to sit down too.

Yang Ping chose a spot a few seats away, and they took turns looking at the slides, with the intern exchanging the slides in between.

After both had finished examining, they wrote their microscopic findings and diagnoses on a piece of paper.

Wen Ruzheng’s face wore a faint smile, "Damn, I should have bet with Professor Yang on this tissue section; with its difficulty, there are few people in the country who could figure it out. Professor Yang would definitely slip up since he’s not a pathology specialist."

Back when he was pursuing his doctorate, some diseases had few pathology slices, and a single hospital didn’t have enough to accumulate, so to increase the number of cases he reviewed, Wen would often travel everywhere. To understand the pathology slices of some special diseases, Dr. Wen went through various connections and traveled all over the country, visiting places like Xiehe and Huaxi Hospitals, becoming brothers in arms with the doctors in those pathology departments, all for the sake of examining more slices.

For the pathology of this kind of disease, Wen had indeed spent a lot of effort, eventually surpassing even his mentor.

"So, any findings? It’s just an ordinary small intestine mucosal slice, nothing special, right?" Wen said with a sly smile on his face.

Yang Ping didn’t speak and simply exchanged his written notes with Wen.

"Intestinal villi blunted and atrophied; increased single nuclear cells in the mucosa’s own layer; increased lymphocytes in the deep crypt epithelium; decreased intraepithelial lymphocytes; increased apoptotic bodies in the crypt epithelium. Diagnosis: Consider autoimmune enteric leiomyositis, please correlate with clinical findings."

Good lord, he had figured it out; Wen was quite a character.

Reading Yang Ping’s report, which was nearly identical to his own and even more detailed, Wen cursed silently. He suddenly felt a chill down his spine, thankful that he hadn’t taken a bet; otherwise, he would face the dreaded consequence of running naked.

How does a surgeon have such a deep understanding of pathology? This defies all logic.

Bringing along such a special pathology slice for examination, was this considered a challenge?

Even if it were a challenge, today, I, Wen Ruzheng, managed a draw with you.

Wen held his head high with pride, thinking, as long as I, Wen Ruzheng, am here, no one else should even think about challenging the pathology department.

"Pathological features are quite typical; it looks like there’s no doubt about the diagnosis, it should be autoimmune enteric leiomyositis," said Yang Ping.

Wen nodded, aware that few pathologists could recognize the pathological manifestations of autoimmune enteric leiomyositis.

"Treatment?"

Dr. Chen understood that if it were this disease, at its current stage, any conservative treatment would be futile. Conservative treatment could only provide symptomatic relief, relying on parenteral nutrition to sustain life.

"Modified multi-organ cluster transplantation within the abdominal cavity!"

Yang Ping believed this was the only treatment method under the current medical conditions; otherwise, the patient would only be left lying in bed, depending on parenteral nutrition to sustain life.

Modified abdominal organ cluster transplantation—excluding the liver, it involved the transplantation of a cluster of abdominal organs including the stomach, pancreas, duodenum, and small intestines, compared to a standalone small intestine transplantation.

As it required the transplantation of several major digestive system organs, the impact on the patient’s systemic pathology and physiology was immense, posing a great challenge to both the surgery and anesthesia team, recognized as the pinnacle and challenge of digestive surgery.

Hearing about this surgical method, Dr. Chen from the Department of Gastroenterology fell silent. Although he was an internal doctor, he was aware of this surgery’s difficulty.

But Director Fang thought, if a simultaneous autologous transplantation of five organs including the liver was easily manageable, then what’s the big deal with an allogeneic transplantation of these few organs?

"Director Chen, transfer to our General Surgery Department, immediately! We’ll arrange the surgery," said Director Fang on the spot.

This Old Fang indeed was a real money-maker; he had just completed an eight-organ ex-vivo resection plus a five-organ autotransplant for pancreatic cancer, and now he stumbled upon such an extraordinary case.

How excited Director Fang was, not even waiting for Director Chen to speak up; he started calling the doctors and nurses in his department to command and arrange the transfer of beds.

"Let’s go, Director Chen, transfer now, immediately. Since the diagnosis is clear and the treatment plan is definite, requiring surgery, having the patient remain in your Department of Gastroenterology is like a ticking time bomb, prone to accidents. Lives are at stake, hurry up and make the transfer."

Director Fang was pulling Dr. Chen along.