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.
Thoracic Surgery 