Famous Among Top Surgeons in the 90s
Chapter 993: 【993】Lecture Topic

Chapter 993: 【993】Lecture Topic

"Today, there are a total of eighteen specialized lectures and two academic reports, which is a few less than tomorrow. They end at six o’clock in the evening, with approximately two hours of lunch break."

"If there are surgical demonstrations during the lectures, it might run over time. We may not even finish after lunch."

"Do you lack confidence in the surgeons here in the Capital?"

"Hepatobiliary surgeries tend to take a long time. If they start the surgery early in the hospital, we won’t be able to make it in time to see it."

"Would you watch the demo surgery if there was one?"

"Yes. But it depends on who’s performing the surgery and what surgery it is."

Hearing these conversations, Xie Wanying thought that it was almost the same as the estimations discussed in their department.

"I know Professor Hao from Juyang Hospital," one of the fellow attendees suddenly pointed out one of the lectures.

"This lecture starts at 8:30 am. The topic is PTCD and intraductal radiotherapy."

After the Percutaneous Transhepatic Cholangial Drainage (PTCD) procedure, a biliary stent is placed, mainly for patients with cancers like pancreatic head cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, and ampullary cancer, which are difficult to detect early. By the time they are found, they are usually in the middle or late stages. These patients also tend to have poor necks, poor cardiopulmonary function, and cannot tolerate Radical Surgery, so they can only receive palliative treatment.

This treatment is only to relieve the malignant biliary obstruction caused by the advanced cancer. However, the stent itself does not suppress tumor growth, and the tumor will continue to grow along the drainage stent to cause obstruction again. In order to maintain drainage patency, doctors have thought of many ways to prevent stent obstruction. One method, first introduced in the 1980s abroad, is brachytherapy with Iridium-192 wires placed inside the biliary duct through a catheter.

Ir-192 is the radioactive isotope Iridium-192, with Ir as the nuclear symbol, used for various types of close-distance brachytherapy within the human body. It is a rather mature technology. Initially, it was widely applied to cervical cancer in humans, and then expanded to cholangiocarcinoma, tongue cancer, etc. In cervical cancer, it can be used as one of the treatments to shrink the tumor before surgery. In Hepatobiliary Surgery, however, it is merely used as late-stage palliative treatment.

Palliative treatment is basically a measure that offers no long-term hope for the patient’s survival. Statistical data from various academic papers shows that patients with malignant biliary obstruction generally only live for about two months. If PTCD is combined with close-distance radiotherapy using Ir-192, the patient’s survival can be extended to more than two years at most, depending on the size of the tumor. For patients with advanced-stage cancer, extending life by even a day still holds significance.

The few doctors discussing earlier decided to first attend Professor Hao’s lecture on PTCD and intraductal radiotherapy treatment. Xie Wanying followed suit, mainly because she noticed that many people were going to that lecture, showing a general consensus in interests.

The multi-media conference room rented out by the hotel was basically converted from small halls and rooms, not very large in size. Upon entering the conference room, the seats in the front row were already full. Xie Wanying found a seat in the back row and sat down.

Just as she settled into her chair, two people walked in through the door, one of whom noticed her and turned to walk toward her.

"Is that Xie Wanying?"

Hearing someone calling her name, Xie Wanying looked up. The male doctor standing in front of her was tall, with a briefcase slung over his shoulder, and he had a face that seemed vaguely familiar to her.

"Don’t remember me? I remember you quite well. That night you and two others came to the emergency department at Xuanwu Hospital. After Dr. Cao took you back, what exactly happened to you all?"