Surgery Godfather

Chapter 339: Chapter 0322: Puzzle

“The Nandu University of Technology also has a team studying brain-computer interface technology. I wonder how they’re progressing? The members in charge of studying brain electrical signals often consult me with their questions and have invited me to participate.” Xu Zhiliang was fully immersed, his passion from his studies reignited.

“Xu Zhiliang, you should contact them. If possible, we can initiate collaboration, we’ll discuss this matter separately after the meeting.”

Yang Ping had a clear plan in his mind, he wanted to use the research on Brain-Computer Interface to progress towards the artificial transmission of neural signals, and finally tackle the recovery of spinal cord injuries.

In the system space, he virtually had infinite time to read. This kind of massive reading allowed Yang Ping’s understanding of professional technology to reach a breadth and depth that ordinary people simply cannot match.

“I can also help to reach out to ATR.” Takahashi always wished to contribute something.

He always wanted to do something meaningful, like an introduction, to establish an even stronger relationship with Yang Ping.

...

“Hmm, Takahashi, are you well-informed about their progress and technological approach?”

Yang Ping appreciated this change in Takahashi. This spirit of exploration corresponded very well with an adage in China, ‘Nothing is difficult for one who sets his mind on it’.

After an open discussion, everyone’s opinions were fairly unanimous and clear. Yu Shuilian’s post-surgical treatment was divided into three stages: first, to avoid infection and organ failure, to pull through the critical period; second, to reconstruct the anus and urethra, to restore bowel and urinary functions; third, to regain the ability to walk erect as much as possible with the help of prosthetics. Each step was incredibly daunting.

Yang Ping paused for a moment, summarizing the just finished speech: “Everyone’s opinion is quite clear. Our most pressing matter at the moment is to help the patient successfully pass through the difficulties of infection and organ failure; then to reconstruct the anus and urethra, to restore physiological excretion abilities. Finally, to restore the patient’s ability to walk erect. Throughout the entire process, psychological counselling will be carried out to foster an optimistic, proactive mindset in the patient.”

Song Zimo took notes of the meeting on his laptop, all of which were to be written into the patient’s progress report as a special entry for case discussions.

As for Doctor Yang, he has yet to express his own views. Everyone looked forward to hearing what Yang Ping had to say, especially the students, who waited eagerly for Yang Ping to start speaking.

Yang Ping knew everyone was waiting. He slowly composed his thoughts and spoke: “The patient’s bladder is still intact, retaining the function of the sphincter and urination reflex, so urine control can be achieved, and there will be no urinary incontinence in the future. However, the anus, rectum, and sigmoid colon have all been removed. The largest problem we face in reconstructing the anus is how to restore the original sphincter function and fecal reflex, to avoid fecal incontinence. If the patient suffers from fecal incontinence, the quality of life will significantly decrease.”

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Takahashi originally thought that the second-stage surgery would mainly involve plastic surgery, simply establishing an evacuation channel. He had not expected Yang Ping to aim at recreating the anal sphincter function and fecal reflex, pursuing the simulation of normal functions.

Indeed, why hadn’t he thought of that? Takahashi immediately took out a notepad and began taking notes. Whether it was surgical technique or surgical reasoning, Doctor Yang was far superior. In these few days, he felt he had learned a great deal.

“This is a completely new topic. The anal sphincter is a circular muscle, and there are few places in the human body where circular muscles exist: the area around the eyes, the area around the lips, and the neck of the bladder. These are all circular muscles, but they surely cannot be used as donors for reconstructing the anus, right?” Takahashi, now more relaxed, spoke freely like a young student.

“Then how can the mouth open and close? How can the eyes blink? How can the bladder control urination? Surely none of these can be used to replace the anal sphincter?”

Zhang Lin felt like a mute amidst a gathering of immortals, unable to utter a word. He was completely marginalized. He had to seize an opportunity to at least say something.

“Can a part of it be used as a donor? After all, muscle fibers and muscle strength are pliable. Even if a part is cut off, can it be restored to its original shape and strength through training?”

Little Five finally caught up. It’s already hard enough to keep up with a group of geniuses in a conversation. Just when they thought they were having a normal chat, the topic would somehow switch from “Nature” to “Science”, making their heads spin. Just when they thought they had a clue, it would slip away without a trace.

The two, as pitiful as each other, locked eyes and felt a resonance: Thank heavens, they finally grasped the tail end of the discussion.

“Not only is finding replacement material for the anal sphincter a problem, but also the restoration of the fecal reflex. In order to rebuild the bladder reflex for spinal cord injury patients, Professor Xiao Chuanguo of Wuhan Tongji Hospital created the Xiao Reflex Arc and achieved some success. We may learn from that.” After being silent for a while, Song Zimo returned to the center of the discussion.

“This is definitely a challenging problem. How exactly are we going to reconstruct it? We’re not here to discuss that now. This is homework for everyone. I expect everyone to present a specific surgical plan in two weeks. If no one has any objections, shall we conclude today’s case discussion?”

Everyone agreed. If the discussion continued, even by tomorrow they would not come up with a specific plan.

Takahashi was extremely intrigued by this homework. This is an internal case discussion, and the homework assigned was such a profound problem. This sort of surgery, even if material and solutions are available, is extremely difficult. It requires a collection of knowledge from orthopedics, reconstructive surgery, plastic surgery, microsurgery, neurosurgery, gastroenterology, and proctology, in order to perform such a surgery.

“Doctor Yang, could you please explain to us the surgery on Yu Shuilian? How was your Code Chaos surgery performed? Why was it arranged like that?” Takahashi feared Yang Ping would abruptly end the meeting.

Once, Yang Ping told Takahashi that this type of surgery had no learning value because it was too difficult, and others couldn’t replicate it.

Takahashi clearly understood that he wouldn’t be able to do it, but in his heart, he didn’t want to give up. Even if he couldn’t learn the technique, he wanted to understand the principles behind it.

There were five large jigsaw puzzles on the table, teaching tools prepared by Little Five. Yang Ping got up, tore the thin film off the five jigsaw puzzles, picked out all the finished pieces, dumped them on the table, and thoroughly scrambled them.

The background color of these five puzzles was different; they were respectively red, yellow, blue, green, and purple, but now they were all mixed together into a messy pile.

“Everybody pay attention, first I’ll demonstrate the approach of a regular surgery.”

Yang Ping didn’t bother explaining much, and very quickly sorted the pieces by color, picked the same colored ones and put them together, then in the order of red, yellow, blue, green, and purple, he started fitting the puzzles one by one, and each piece was placed in order from left to right, top to bottom.

As he progressively inserted the pieces one by one, soon, the five puzzles were completed in sequence, eliciting admiration from everyone for his memory and puzzle-solving abilities.

Yang Ping had already scrambled the puzzles again, mixing them all up into a messy, colorful pile.

“Now, I’ll demonstrate another surgical method, the so-called ‘chaos code’ surgery.”

This time, Yang Ping didn’t categorize the small pieces, but instead randomly picked from the pile of pieces. No matter which puzzle the piece came from or which position it belonged to, he placed it right back in its original spot.

Sometimes he stuck one piece to a puzzle, and sometimes to another puzzle. Sometimes he was putting a piece to the middle of a puzzle, and other times to the edges. There was no specific order. He just picked and placed whatever piece was at hand.

Gradually, the number of scattered pieces on the table decreased and the picture of the puzzle became more and more complete. When the last piece was fitted in, all the puzzles were completely finished without a single piece missing.

Language explanations were too exhausting; Yang Ping demonstrated his ‘chaos code’ method clinically and succinctly using a puzzle.

However, it was like everyone was watching a magic show; before they could prepare themselves, the puzzle was already successfully assembled twice using two different methods.

Song Zimo, Xu Zhiliang, and Takahashi all got up, picked up a few puzzles off the table, and took a look. There were no errors at all.

These puzzles still had their protective films intact just moments ago; Yang Ping had just gotten his hands on them. There was no way he could memorize them beforehand, and there was no need for him to play tricks just for a demonstration.

Such immense cerebral power, such robust planning ability; was this the power of a human brain?

The time taken to assemble the puzzle the second time was actually much less than the first. If it were anyone else following the second method, they’d surely fall into chaos.

Takahashi understood; this was why Yang Ping told him not to learn. Because, others simply were unable to do it.

The puzzles scattered on the conference table kept Takahashi occupied.

The operations on Yu Shuilian were like each piece of a puzzle and moreover, they were emergency rescue operations. There was no time to familiarize oneself with the surgery, so it was just like a bunch of new puzzles scrambled in front of you, there was no time to think, you had to start solving the puzzle immediately without even a chance to hesitate.

Under such circumstances, no one would choose the second method; any reasonable person would definitely choose the first method.

“Can you do it?” Xu Zhiliang asked Song Zimo.

Song Zimo shook his head: “I can, but it would be slower than the first method, as I would need some time for thought and searching in the middle.”

“Me too, if it were a puzzle competition, I would not dare to use the second method.” Xu Zhiliang admitted defeat.

Takahashi was playing with the puzzle as if he was looking at magic props: “Teacher Wu, did you buy these new?”

Little Five crumpled the film on the table into a ball: “The film was torn just now, Doctor Yang asked me to bring several puzzles. I didn’t even know what it was for, I thought they were for Sisi to play with.”

Takahashi sucked in a breath of cold air, at the academic conference that Yang Ping, who crushed him, not only had the strongest hands, but also the most powerful brain.

To be defeated by him, was a form of honor!