Famous Among Top Surgeons in the 90s-Chapter 1930: Different Tools

It’s a special type of bandage soaked in slaked lime. At this point, the plaster bandage is soft, which allows it to be bound or applied to the relevant part of the patient for shaping, and then wait for the lime to harden to achieve a fixed effect.

For instance, how many laypeople know that apart from the most common use in fracture treatment and correction, plaster bandages can actually be used on burns?

Where is plaster used in spinal surgery? Are plaster bandages used to fix the spine?

There are cases where plaster bandages can be used to bind the waist as a lumbar support, but care must be taken not to restrict the patient’s chest breathing, and it is contraindicated for pregnant women. As for now in the operating room, there is no need for plaster bandages; the application scenario for plaster has changed to the surgical bed the patient is lying on, dubbed a plaster bed.

The plaster bed is hard and entire, and when the patient lies on it, it is equivalent to the human skeleton being on a plane, facilitating the orthopedic doctor’s observation and judgment of the bone position and angle. Like today’s posterior spinal surgery, the patient is in a prone position on the plaster bed, with the spine supported by the plaster bed, providing better exposure of the surgical field.

The operating room nurse helps the doctor adjust the patient’s position, fixing the patient in place. Anesthesia has also been completed.

Doctor Liu brought Student Xie in, and as with other surgeries, they performed preoperative disinfection and draping.

Assisting Doctor Liu in the preoperative preparations, Xie Wanying noticed that Student Geng hadn’t appeared. It could be that Geng Yongzhe couldn’t bear to see his brother lying on the operating table, or Mother Geng was crying outside and needed her eldest son to comfort her, hence the delay.

Orthopedic surgery is said to be somewhat special compared to other surgical scenes. It involves bones, and the image that immediately comes to mind is of doctors like butchers wielding knives to hack bones.

It’s not wrong to say that orthopedic doctors do need to handle human bones during surgery, requiring knives to operate on bones. The knives capable of cutting bones must be akin to kitchen knives; ordinary knives won’t suffice, requiring special instruments. This type of instrument in orthopedics is called an Ultrasonic Osteotome.

What does an Ultrasonic Osteotome look like? Is it as large as a cleaver? No, the Ultrasonic Osteotome is quite similar to the ordinary Electrosurgical Unit, pen-shaped, except the blade surface of the knife head is slightly larger than that of the Electrosurgical Unit. Don’t underestimate this surgical knife just because it hasn’t changed much in appearance; the principle of the Ultrasonic Osteotome uses high-frequency ultrasonic oscillations to generate bone-destroying force, absolutely comparable to a cleaver.

Moreover, the Ultrasonic Osteotome can adjust its working frequency. At a certain frequency limit, it can specifically target high sound impedance bones and calcified mineralized hard tissue for mechanical destruction, while automatically screening out low sound impedance soft tissue, avoiding damage to soft tissue and focusing solely on bone lesions. In spinal surgery, where anatomically bones and nerves are closely intertwined, the surgeon needs to be particularly cautious during the operation. The Ultrasonic Osteotome, being incapable of cutting soft tissue, allows orthopedic surgeons to avoid inadvertently injuring nerves and prevent postoperative sequelae, hence the Ultrasonic Osteotome is considered a valuable tool.

The nurse’s instrument table has a row of Ultrasonic Osteotome heads, which Doctor Ren selects and switches around. In addition to the Ultrasonic Osteotome, other conventional surgical blades and Electrosurgical Units are also necessary. The assistant lays out the surgical drape.

The Chief Surgeon scrubbed up and entered the operating room.

"Doctor Zhang, thank you for your help today," Chang Jiawei said, putting on his surgical gown with the nurse’s assistance, addressing the anesthesiologist.