Great Doctor Ling Ran
chapter-260

Chapter 260: Legendary Achilles Tendon

Ling Ran put on the gloves before he applied disinfectant on the patient’s calf and massaged it. He exerted some force on it while he massaged it. Once he was done with the massage, he said, “Countdown for twenty minutes.”

He only had around twenty minutes left to utilize his Skill Serum. If he managed to finish the surgery within twenty minutes, then the entire surgery would be performed using the Legendary Level Achilles Tendon Repair Technique.

Of course, even if he could not finish the surgery within twenty minutes, nothing bad would happen.

When Ling Ran performed his surgeries in the Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Center, the average time he took to utilize the Achilles Tendon Rupture Repair Technique was around thirty minutes. Since the preparatory work had been completed, and it was not an extremely complicated surgery, Ling Ran felt pretty relaxed.

As for the doctors in the Orthopedics Department of Yun Hua Hospital, their emotions and expressions were not in the realm of calm anymore.

The time for a normal doctor to perform an Achilles tendon rupture repair was around one hour. Also, several bad habits that made the doctors dawdle around during surgery often caused the operation to be slower. So, it was common for a doctor to use one and a half hours for the surgery.

Sometimes, there were doctors who tried to complete the surgeries fast. They managed to shorten the surgery time for an Achilles tendon repair to fifty minutes. But no one would treat it as a competition and put a very short time limit on a surgery, much less twenty minutes.

What could be done within twenty minutes? For surgery, twenty minutes may not even be sufficient for the closing of an incision, especially for new doctors. It was normal for them to spend dozens of minutes to close an incision.

Even a skilled orthopedist would not ever think of completing a surgery within twenty minutes. A doctor would need more than twenty minutes to complete the process of taking out the bone from a bone cancer patient, and boiling it.

Ling Ran did not care about what other orthopedists thought.

He was not good in considering other people’s opinions. If he wanted to make everyone around him happy, he would have been engaged to one hundred and sixty-six girls when he was in kindergarten. This number was the sum of girls in his kindergarten, his teachers’ daughters, and parents who had daughters.

Therefore, Ling Ran already understood when he was still very young, that no one could ever please the whole world and make everyone happy.

The most possible scenario was pleasing one person while offending another.

Once Ling Ran grew up, he learned to only concern himself with facts, not with individuals.

Take, for example, the surgery before him. If he could complete it within twenty minutes and had no choice but to complete it within twenty minutes, he would limit himself to complete it within that time. If the other orthopedists felt embarrassed or troubled because of that, he could do nothing about it. This was just like when someone confessed to you in public, but you did not have any feelings for that person. What else could you do besides reject that person?

“Scalpel.” Ling Ran extended his hand. When he received the scalpel, he used the fiddle bow hold and cut an S-shape where the lines were drawn.

With the addition of the Skill Serum, his fiddle bow hold had been upgraded from Specialist Level to Master Level.

A Specialist Level skill was normal in top hospitals like Yun Hua Hospital.

If attending physicians could not obtain any Specialist Level skill, it would be hard for them to stay in Yun Hua Hospital, and it would not be an exaggeration to say that they were just wasting their life away. Most of the attending physicians mastered at least two or three Specialist Level skills. If they had three to four types of Specialist Level skills, they could somewhat be considered masters.

However, only the doctors with Master Level skills would be considered true masters.

However, forget attending physicians who were in their thirties, even associate chief physicians who were not talented could not master Master Level skills. In other words, even doctors with talent needed more time and opportunities to gain a Master Level skill.

For instance, the M-Tang technique of Department Associate Director Pan from Yun Hua Hospital’s Hand Surgery Department had yet to reach Master Level. It was not due to his lack of talent, but due to Yun Hua Hospital not providing him any opportunities to perform the M-Tang technique. The M-Tang technique project was not present in Yun Hua Hospital before Ling Ran came. Department Associate Director Pan started to learn the M-Tang technique from scratch and developed it on his own. Not only did he spend lots of his time and effort on it, but it was also very difficult for him to learn the skill.

So, Department Associate Director Pan was already very great for polishing his M-Tang technique to Specialist Level. But if he wanted to make it to Master Level, he might need another one to two years or even three years of practice to reach a breakthrough and achieve Master Level.

In the hospital, associate directors like Department Associate Director Pan were considered experts among the elites.

The average level of the Orthopedics Department was not even comparable to the level of the Hand Surgery Department in Yun Hua Hospital. The doctors in the operating theater were mostly attending physicians and resident doctors. None of them had mastered any Master Level skills.

However, there was an associate chief physician who strolled in because he was free, and he knew what was going on. He patted the doctor beside him on the shoulder and said, “Record it.”

The appointed resident doctor gasped before he immediately took out his phone and switched on the recording mode.

The associate chief physician nodded and said, “No phones are allowed when you come in and out of the operating theater. Don’t do it the next time.”

“Oh, yes…” The young resident doctors looked at his screen sadly.

Phones, socks, and sandals were the main contaminants in operating theaters.

The chief surgeons, assistants, and scrub nurses only promised not to touch them. It was very rare for them to not bring their phones in. Even if the hospital gave them repeated warnings and orders, it had no effect on the personnel in the operating theaters. Doctors would follow all kinds of rules and regulations except leave their phones aside, change their sandals more often, and give up their socks.

Therefore, the phone was also known as Schrödinger’s phone in the hospital. When you enquired and observed the doctors, they usually did not have a phone with them. But once the doors to the operating theaters were shut, you had no idea how many phone calls they made, or how many levels they cleared in Anipop.

Naturally, the associate chief physician also brought his phone along. As long as he did not take it out, it meant that he did not have his phone on his person.

The young resident doctors who had been criticized were brought to the front of the operating table. An attending physician patted him on the shoulder, smiled, and said, “It’s okay. We used to forget to put our phones away. You’ll know when you work for another two years.”

The young resident doctor kept his phone facing the operating table. He grunted before he whispered unhappily, “If you didn’t bring your phone, what’s that thing poking my waist?”

“Who puts his phone in that location?”

“What?”

…..

Ling Ran immediately cut open the spot where the Achilles tendon was for the young white-collar worker, and looked at it carefully.

At that moment, what Ling Ran saw was the Achilles tendon, yet in his mind were the different parameters of the patient’s MRI scan.

With his Perfect Level MRI Analysis on Four Limbs, Ling Ran did not need to memorize the exact values of the patient’s MRI results. He could simply gain a perceptual understanding when he read the scans, then he would generate his own opinion from the key parameters in the MRI scan.

He could form his own opinion regarding things such as the hardness of the tendon, the tenacity, thickness, whether or not there was calcification, the muscle density, the thickness of the adipose tissue, and so on.

A normal doctor would only look at what was problematic when they analyzed MRI scans. Even Ling Ran only looked at the problematic parts when he possessed Master Level MRI Analysis.

However, with Perfect Level MRI Scan Analysis, Ling Ran came to gain a corresponding understanding towards the unproblematic parts as well.

This meant that his ability to read MRI scans had improved tenfold or even a hundredfold.

The Achilles tendon of the young white-collar worker that was in front of him provided a great example. Ling Ran could tell that the strength of the ligament binding the tendon belonged to the stronger category. The tenacity of the ligament was also greater. But both its strength and tenacity were in normal condition, so normally, doctors would not even pay attention to it.

Even if doctors possessed the ability to read MRI scans and read the scans before the surgery, they would not analyze the scans so in depth. A radiologist with such skills in MRI scan analysis would not possess the relevant knowledge in the medical field to tell the surgeon as well. The Medical Imaging Department served the entire hospital. Hence, most of them would not perform in-depth research or understand the details of how a specific skill was performed in the Orthopedics Department.

Naturally, radiologists did not have any knowledge about the effects of one tenacious ligament on the surgery itself.

In fact, Ling Ran’s current ability in MRI scan analysis had been desired by most radiologists around the world, but they could never obtain it.

Ling Ran felt that if he were to perform surgery on Liu Weichen right then, his improvement in MRI scan analysis alone could make the recovery of Liu Weichen’s Achilles tendon increase greatly. He could not confirm that the recovery would be 100%, but he would have more advantages during his recovery period in terms of a lower degree of trauma, among other factors.

As for the Legendary Level Achilles Tendon Repair Technique…

Ling Ran now held the scalpel in the pencil grip style and cut down gently. With just a few cuts, he separated and took out the patient’s Achilles tendon.

“Some old clots can be found. They probably formed due to rupture upon falling.” Ling Ran looked at them carefully before he easily made his judgment.

“If we had listened to the nonsense he said and believed that someone actually cut his tendon, it’d be interesting once we opened up the surgical field.” Lu Wenbin felt amused yet displeased at the same time.

“Yup,” Ling Ran replied and said, “I thought I received an interesting medical case.”

The MRI scan showed that the rupture site of the Achilles tendon was uneven. If the tendon had been cut off by someone else, the development after surgery would be very surprising.

Unfortunately, once they set up the surgical field, the truth they were presented with was the type that stimulated doctors the least. It may have been better for a patient to spew nonsense than to lie, but that was much more boring than the patient lying.

“Should we cut it evenly?” Lu Wenbin had participated in hundreds of Ling Ran’s Achilles tendon repairs. In that hospital, a great assistant like him could already try to do the suturing himself. So it was no surprise that he was also very familiar with every step of the surgery.

Yet, Ling Ran looked at the part with old clots and thought for a while. He then said, “It’s likely that his Achilles tendon has been torn previously, but he didn’t get it treated. That has resulted in weaker motor ability and a less tenacious Achilles tendon, causing his Achilles tendon to rupture from the fall.”

“Many people don’t even notice when their Achilles tendons have ruptured. They’ll only think that they’ve twisted their ankle. He had a partial tear, and he probably just treated it as a more serious twisted ankle.”

“Yes. Since the surgical field is set, we’ll do an Achilles tendon repair for the old tear as well,” Ling Ran made his decision immediately.

Lu Wenbin looked at his watch and asked, “Then, should we reschedule the time?”

“No need, twenty minutes will be more than enough,” Ling Ran replied. Then he said, “Scissors.”

The scrub nurse passed the scissors over.

Ling Ran looked for the right position, cut the Achilles tendon, and said to Lu Wenbin, “I’ll cut down the torn Achilles tendon and use it to repair the old tear.”

The difference between chronic Achilles tendon repair and fresh Achilles tendon repair was, a transplant was needed for the first technique.

The surgeon had to cut a good part of the tendon to replace the missing part in the Achilles tendon. If a chronic Achilles tendon repair was used on a completely ruptured tendon, then a longer part of the Achilles tendon would need to be transplanted, because, by the time of the surgery, the two sides of the Achilles tendon would have contracted.

However, Ling Ran’s patient at the moment only had some chronic lesions in one part of his Achilles tendon, so he only needed to repair that part.

Plus, he could use the uneven ends of the Achilles tendon to do so. It belonged to the category of reusing unwanted parts, but the difficulty level in execution had increased by at least one level.

Ling Ran did not talk much. He calmly operated on the patient.

A normal doctor would have had difficulty operating in such a way. They could not guarantee the strength of a torn Achilles tendon. If it was used for repairs, it could easily cause secondary damage.

Nonetheless, Ling Ran understood its strength very well through the MRI scan. The Legendary Level Achilles Tendon Repair Technique also saw such operations as the norm.

In fact, although Ling Ran did not mention it, the method he used was pretty close to the Plan A designed by Academician Zhu Tongyi.

However, this time, he would not be suturing the blood vessels he cut. That aside, the core of the surgery was still to reduce the number of blood vessels, which was the same as Plan A.

Hence, from the perspectives of the doctors from the Orthopedics Department, while Ling Ran’s Achilles Tendon Repair Technique seemed very standard, in truth, the blood vessels that he cut was only twenty percent of what a normal doctor would cut.

Ling Ran only used eighteen minutes to complete the Achilles tendon repair suture for the patient.

Once he closed the incision, he finished the surgery right on time—twenty minutes.

“So fast.”

“Twenty minutes?”

“He’s as fast as lightning.”

The young doctors from the Orthopedics Department did not hesitate to praise Ling Ran. But, there was no change in Ling Ran’s facial expression at all because the compliments given by the young doctors were not on what was important in the surgery.

“Thanks for your hard work.” Ling Ran was not interested in tasks like dressing. He left all those things to Lu Wenbin and nodded to everyone. Then, he exited the operating theater without asking for permission.

“When you get back, send me the video.” The associate chief physician took out his phone and shook it in front of the young doctor who recorded the video.