Chapter 133: Chapter 130: Debut, First Show of Might
Lu Xuejun projected the patient’s CT scans.
"Director Huo, take a look. The patient has multiple tumors growing on the right lobe of the liver and in the hilar region. The patient was admitted due to recurrent abnormal liver function, with suspected space-occupying lesions in the liver. The preliminary diagnosis is a malignant liver tumor..."
Huo Yun examined the scans carefully, his expression growing more somber the longer he looked.
"This patient’s condition is very poor. There are multiple solid or cystic tumors in the right lobe of the liver. Each tumor is small, but they’re scattered throughout the liver parenchyma. The lesions are numerous..."
Huo Yun sighed:
"Given the circumstances, a definitive diagnosis is difficult. There are several possibilities. We’ll have to perform a liver biopsy."
"However, regardless of the type of malignant tumor, the primary treatment is surgical resection. The problem is that the lesions are small and numerous, making them difficult to remove completely. There’s also a high probability of recurrence. If it’s not managed properly and it becomes a diffuse malignancy, we’ll see repeated relapses. Ultimately, a liver transplant may be the only option!"
"The patient came to our hospital specifically for our reputation in laparoscopic surgery and requested a minimally invasive procedure. Given the circumstances, precisely locating all the tumors laparoscopically is going to be extremely difficult."
"We can only improve the tumor resection rate and lower the risk of postoperative complications if we can precisely locate the tumors and clearly identify the key anatomical structures."
After some discussion, neither Director Huo nor Director Cai felt confident enough to perform the laparoscopic surgery.
"If we can’t do it, we should first invite external experts for a remote consultation. If that’s still not viable, then to minimize the patient’s postoperative complications, our only choice is to transfer them to a higher-level hospital for a more advanced surgical approach."
Since the patient had been admitted to the Hepatobiliary Surgery Department, Cai Qi figured that if they couldn’t handle the case, they would just have to transfer the patient to a higher-level hospital.
"Dr. Wu, you’re on good terms with Professor Shen, Professor Jin, and Professor Ma. Why don’t you contact the three of them and hold a case discussion about this patient? See if they have any better surgical approaches."
"Perhaps they could even guide us remotely while we perform the surgery here in our department."
Cai Qi looked at Wu Ting.
Wu Ting thought for a moment before speaking to the two directors.
"Director Huo, Director Cai, I might have a good auxiliary solution for this patient. It’s just that our system is still in the debugging phase. I need to contact Dr. Ling Ling."
"Recently, Dr. Ling and I have been developing a 3D image-guided navigation platform. I’ve already completed all the programming and algorithms. It’s just that the database integration and deep learning training are still underway."
"The hardware and software debugging is also ongoing, and based on our progress, it’s nearly finished. If we can complete it today, then I believe we can perform a brand-new procedure on this patient: Indocyanine green fluorescence laparoscopy combined with 3D image-guided navigation for an assisted laparoscopic liver tumor resection!"
Hearing Wu Ting’s words, it was clear that Director Huo and Director Cai didn’t quite understand.
"Let me put it simply. We’ve developed a 3D image-guided navigation platform that provides non-invasive, real-time navigation during laparoscopic surgery. It assists surgeons in precisely locating tumors, highlights key anatomical structures, and can also be combined with indocyanine green fluorescence technology."
"Once the platform’s deep learning training is complete, it will be able to construct a real-time model of the liver’s structure and pinpoint the lesions."
Listening to Wu Ting’s explanation, Huo Yun and Cai Qi only had a partial understanding.
"Wu Ting, I have an idea," Huo Yun said. "How about we contact Professor Shen and discuss this with him? He’s certainly more knowledgeable about this kind of cutting-edge technology than we are."
"Of course. I’ll contact him right away."
Wu Ting picked up his phone and first called Dr. Ling Ling.
Ling Ling had been using a top-of-the-line computer, feeding it data from Jiuhua Hospital’s medical records database, and running the deep learning model around the clock for several days and nights.
"Dr. Wu, based on our current progress, the model has already run for five hundred thousand steps. Because I chose a very large batch size, convergence has been quick, which greatly reduced the number of training iterations. The accuracy is very stable now, and the network’s generalization ability is excellent... By my estimate, another thirty minutes should be enough to perfect the large-scale model."
Wu Ting was very satisfied with her report. ’As expected of a doctoral student from Union Hospital,’ he thought.
"Dr. Ling, if we were to use it in a liver tumor surgery this afternoon, would it be feasible?"
A moment later, her firm reply came through:
"Yes. I’m almost done with the hardware and software debugging as well. We just need to load the latest large-scale base model, and it will run perfectly."
"That’s excellent, Dr. Ling! If all goes well, today will be the official debut of our joint project!"
Listening to Wu Ting and Dr. Ling exchange all sorts of advanced terminology, Director Huo and Director Cai were thoroughly impressed, even if they didn’t understand a word of it.
"This new generation... We old-timers really can’t keep up anymore."
Standing to the side, Lu Xuejun felt like spitting up blood. He was part of the younger generation, too, but he was just as clueless as they were.
’All you can say is that Dr. Wu and Dr. Ling are just on another level,’ he thought.
After speaking with Dr. Ling, Wu Ting called Professor Shen.
Shen Guofeng was somewhat familiar with 3D image-guided navigation technology.
"Wu Ting, as far as I know, the 3D image reconstruction technology currently available in the country isn’t capable of such a refined, real-time rendering, is it? Especially not for a liver tumor with multiple lesions like this."
Shen Guofeng’s concerns were understandable. After all, in the laboratories at the First Affiliated Hospital of Jinggang University, similar projects that were still in the experimental stage were a long way from being ready for use in an actual operating room.
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