An Ordinary Afternoon

An Ordinary Afternoon at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital

The  Uniportal VATS course continues for much of the rest of the week (March 9 – 20th).

After Dr. Gonzalez completed his second case today, we had a short break before the start of his next case.  I took the opportunity to peek into the operating rooms to give everyone a better idea of what surgery at Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital is like.  There were 32 surgeries scheduled for today.  I couldn’t watch them all, of course, but at 2:30 pm – the operating rooms looked something like this:

In OR #10 – surgeons were completing a right-sided thoracotomy (bilobectomy with pulmonary artery resection secondary to tumor invasion).

OR #9  – was in the midst of a subxyphoid resection of a mediastinal mass

OR# 2 was finishing up a “traditional” three port-VATS case for lung resection

OR #7 was finishing ligating the last branches of the pulmonary artery for a giant-sized left upper lobe tumor requiring open thoracotomy

OR #8 was performing a 3 segmentectomy of the left upper and lower lobe by dual port thoracoscopy using a 3-D monitor

OR # 5 sternotomy with resection of a large thymoma

OR # 4 subxyphoid approach for mediastinal tumor resection in a patient s/p previous right upper lobectomy

OR # 1 uniportal lung resection (left lower lobectomy)

OR #11 uniportal lung resection – right lower lobectomy

OR # 12 just wheeled in a patient for a right sided pluerodesis after spontaneous pneumothorax.

I also passed a patient being wheeled to the post-operative recovery room, when 4 more patients were recuperating.

I’ll be writing a couple case studies to publish over the next few days, so check back soon.

Author: K Eckland

World of Thoracic Surgery is a blog about the work, research, and practices of thoracic surgeons around the world. It includes case studies, [sometimes] dry research, interviews with thoracic surgeons along with patient perspectives, and feedback. View all posts by K Eckland