Surgery Godfather
Chapter 782 - 700: Skin Patch Three-Dimensional Forming Technology

Chapter 782: Chapter 700: Skin Patch Three-Dimensional Forming Technology

On the first day after the surgery, in the comprehensive surgical ward, Yang Ping was leading everyone on their ward rounds.

Teacher Sun was wrapped in bandages from head to toe, except for his eyes and mouth. Of course, his excretory outlets weren’t covered either.

The bandages didn’t need to be changed for a full 12 days, after which they could finally be removed. For these 12 days, Teacher Sun could only urinate via a catheter, defecate bedridden aided by a bedpan, and meals were manually fed. If necessary, a gastric tube might be used to grind and liquify the food, which would then be directly pumped into his stomach. All eating, drinking, urinating, and defecating occurred while he was in bed. This was what they called "absolute bed rest".

Absolute bed rest required lying in bed every single moment. Even a brief period of leaving the bed would break the rule of absolute bed rest.

The grafted skin needed 10-12 days to establish a blood supply with the dermis. During this period, the skin graft required pressure to maintain its nutrition. After 10-12 days, new blood vessels would have formed between the graft and dermis, enabling the grafted skin to survive without external pressure. Thus, at this point, the pressure dressing could be removed.

Once these 12 days were up, Teacher Sun could finally emerge from this cocoon and transform into a butterfly.

In the ward, Teacher Sun’s students were very enthusiastic. They took turns caring for him, feeding him porridge and water, dealing with his excretions, and during spare time, shared stories about their learning experiences or work life with Teacher Sun.

"Teacher Sun, how are you feeling? Are you in pain?" Yang Ping asked out of concern.

Teacher Sun, moving his lips in a very small range, mumbled, "I’ve been skinned alive. How could I possibly not feel pain?"

His way of describing things, ’being skinned alive’, was vivid. To everyone’s surprise, Teacher Sun was quite humorous, and his words elicited a round of laughter.

"Didn’t you notice, our ward is a pain-free ward, there’s even a sign on the wall to prove it. If we let you shout out in pain, wouldn’t that be detrimental to our reputation?" Yang Ping teased along with his words.

Quickly, Teacher Sun replied, "Is it really that serious? In that case, even if I were in pain, I would endure it and not ask the doctor or nurse for a pain-killing injection. I wouldn’t want to tarnish your reputation."

Being a teacher, he certainly had a way with words, still being able to crack jokes with the doctors despite his mummified state.

"You’ve got it wrong again. If you had to scream before a nurse came to administer your painkiller, it would mean that our pain management plan has failed. An excellent pain management plan not only provides medication as needed, but also administers it at regular times and dosages. The goal isn’t to relieve the pain after it has occurred, but to administer the medication in advance to prevent the pain from occurring in the first place." Yang Ping took the opportunity to explain the concept of pain management to him.

In the past, pain wasn’t considered important, but now it’s considered a priority. Body temperature, heart rate, pulse, and breathing rate used to be the four vital signs, but now pain has been added as the fifth vital sign.

So now many places are promoting pain-free wards, implementing new pain management principles and plans. However, most pain-free wards are more for show and don’t really meet the required standards. It’s just like the promotional pictures for beef noodles - the image is only for reference.

"Thank you everyone, thank you, Professor Yang, thank you, Doctor Ivan!" Teacher Sun expressed his gratitude.

Lying in his bed, he felt very excited. He desperately hoped that the 12 days would pass quickly. He was really looking forward to seeing his whole new self after the skin graft.

Teacher Sun knew that without the influence of Yang Ping, there was no chance that this world-class plastic surgeon would have performed his operation. He heard that Doctor Ivan charged millions of US dollars per operation.

"You should rest well. For the next operation, Dr. Ivan will give you a hair transplant, a double eyelid surgery, an eyelash implant. Now, I want to ask you about your hair. You can choose from thick, sparse, bald, or any other hairstyle you desire," He inquired.

"Can hairstyles be customized?" He asked cariously.

"You can think of it that way."

"In that case, there’s no need to choose, just go for thick. Since I’ve gotten this far, there’s no need to be modest."

"Good! We have already started cultivating the scalp with hair and the eyelid skin with eyelashes in the laboratory. By the time of the surgery, they should be ready to use."

After chatting with Teacher Sun for a while and finishing up the rounds, Yang Ping took everyone to the lab to check on the progress of the new skin graft cultivation.

When Teacher Sun was undergoing the skin grafting operation, some hair follicles were taken from the remaining hair on his head. These valuable hair follicles, like seeds, were preserved and then implanted into the skin graft in the lab. Then this section of skin was expanded. The eyelash cultivation followed the same procedure.

If it weren’t for the support of the technology of skin expansion, it would be impossible to obtain such a large amount and high-quality skin grafts for Teacher Sun’s operation. Furthermore, obtaining hair follicle-containing skin grafts would be even more impossible.

After completing the rounds, everyone reconvened in the lab.

Liang Fatty was there assisting in the lab, acting as Tang Shun’s assistant, mainly doing odd jobs and chit-chatting.

Tang Shun was in the process of putting a tiny piece of skin into the cultivator. Seeing Yang Ping and everyone coing in, he immediately finished what he was doing.

"How is it?" Yang Ping asked him.

Tang Shun nodded in satisfaction: "I have implanted hair follicles into the skin according to the experimental plan, infusing nine follicles each time. They are very closely spaced. With our amplification technology, it can replicate at the density I have pre-set."

Having had the experience from the first time, Tang Shun had no doubt the experiment would succeed.

"So this new amplification technology constantly duplicates the original material? If the skin has no hair, the large-distanced skin patch produced after the amplification will also have no hair; but if it has hair or hair follicles, the amplified skin will also have hair or hair follicles, and the density would be the same as the original skin?" Ivan asked after listening to their conversation.

Tang Shun answered quite confidently: "Exactly, it’s amazing, isn’t it? This principle is completely different from Professor Manstein’s technology. To be more precise, he amplifies, while we multiply."

Ivan took a deep breath, mulling over the word "replicate" repeatedly in his mind.

This really is true replication, and the innovation in this technology is significant.

"So, as long as there is a hair follicle, you guys can replicate a piece of skin with hair?" Ivan asked persistently.

Tang Shun knew that Yang Ping had no intention of hiding anything, so he gave a straightforward answer: "That’s correct."

"How can a single hair follicle control density? Multiple hair follicles inherently have density, replication only needs to duplicate the existing density, a single hair follicle doesn’t have density, how is the density replicated?" Ivan did not understand the technique.

"It’s quite simple. If there is only one hair follicle, there’s no reference for the replication of density, it has randomness. We allow it to multiply, and the replicated skin patch will have unevenly distributed hair. We can cut out skin patches according to the density requirement and use this skin patch as the skin source for subsequent cultivation." Tang Shun explained clearly.

"Clever!"

Ivan had to admire their approach to solving problems; it was full of intellectual sparks.

"What’s this?"

Ivan noticed that the medium for the skin patch attachment in this cycle of cultivation was not flat but spherical. On closer inspection, it was shaped like a head. On an even closer look, the medium for attachment was modeled after Teacher Sun’s head.

"Why is this?" Ivan pointed at the head-model medium.

Tang Shun knew that this new technology would seem puzzling to Ivan in every way, hence he had to explain again: "Your next surgery involves a scalp graft, doesn’t it? Using a medium like this, the skin patch will grow along the model, eventually forming a shape like a ’headgear’. During the surgery, you just have to place the ’headgear’ on the head, evenly make perforations, slightly stretch the surgical area, and use negative pressure suction with VSD. Isn’t that a perfect scalp graft?"

"Incredibly good! Plus, it looks very comfortable." Ivan gave a thumbs up after hearing the explanation.

The rewards from this trip to China truly are great - much greater than expected.

"So, you imply that for complex parts such as hands and feet, this prefabricated skin graft method can be used?" Ivan was very excited.

In the past when he conducted plastic surgery, he often used 3D printing technology to assist. For instance, during rhinoplasty, he would use 3D printing technology to create the cartilage he wanted and then implant it into the patient to achieve the desired result.

However, skin grafting cannot be done this way. For some three-dimensional parts, the method of patching together to shape the wrapping three-dimensional shape is adopted.

For a face which can be formed in one go, it’s because the face is generally rather flat.

If it’s a head which is spherical, it cannot be shaped in one go.

This principle is just like not being able to cut out a pair of gloves with a piece of paper without using cutting and stitching techniques, even if a facial mask can be cut out.

This skin patch shaping technology is the truly three-dimensional shaping technology.

The discussion here was about technology.

On the other side, Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, August, and Robert were surrounding Liang Fatty, learning about his recent insights from following Tang Shun’s studies.