This doctor is already middle-aged, and he's only just started practicing medicine.

Chapter 59 The Roots of Orthopedics!
[Single-managed spleen-preserving surgery, significantly reducing the patient's risk of shock and avoiding spleen removal, earning 3.1 skill points]

Current skill point balance: 12.3

One surgery earns 3 skill points, equivalent to two to three tendon sutures.

The Spleen Preservation Technique truly lives up to its name; the skill point rewards are incredibly high, and this is just the simple version.

Splenectomy is only a secondary surgical procedure. Spleen-preserving surgery does not have a fundamental surgical procedure. In fact, it is a combination of splenic suturing, splenic segment resection, etc., so there is no strict classification.

According to Lu Cheng's own calculations, the skill point gain for a level one surgery is about 1 point, while the skill point gain for a level two surgery is about 2 points.

Following this logic, the difficulty level of this spleen-preserving surgery should be above level two but below level three...

After the patient was escorted from the operating room to the recovery room by the circulating nurse and the anesthesiologist, Chen Song crossed his arms and looked at Lu Cheng with a smile still lingering in his eyes, thoughtfully saying, "Little Lu, did your blind date a while ago go well? You have that doting smile on your face."

Lu Cheng said, "The blind date fell through, but the first spleen-preserving surgery I performed is something to be happy about."

“Professor Chen, if it weren’t for you, this patient would most likely have needed to have their spleen removed.”

Spleen-preserving surgery has certain entry requirements and can be routinely performed in prefecture-level city hospitals. However, if the disease occurs in a remote area and the patient cannot wait to go to a prefecture-level city hospital, then the only option is to remove the spleen to save the patient's life.

Chen Song raised his chin slightly: "The liver protection technique is too difficult to implement. It is the masterpiece of Academician Wu Mengchao. Although it has been passed down as a classic for so many years, it is not something you can easily learn."

"However, given your aptitude, if you learn the spleen-preserving and gallbladder-preserving techniques within a few months, you'll have enough to eat in the future."

"But Xiao Lu, have you thought about the future?"

"Or are you planning to rely on the spleen-preserving technique and gallbladder-preserving technique for the rest of your life?" Chen Song asked Lu Cheng in a flippant tone as he left the house.

Surgery is difficult to learn, and its techniques are not easily passed on to others; one needs a teacher to guide them to even begin to understand it.

The claims circulating online that you can learn surgery by watching videos are pure nonsense and idle chatter.

Chen Song was actually trying to seduce Lu Cheng.

"Teacher Chen, please feel free to offer your guidance." Lu Cheng lowered his pride and temporarily set aside his own plans.

Even ancient monarchs needed advisors; listening to more opinions is never a bad thing.

Chen Song scratched his ear and slowly uttered the words he had been pondering for a long time: "Xiao Lu, actually I've been through this stage myself..."

“I know the pressure you are facing right now. You’re an adult now, and the pressure of life is part of it. It’s really not easy to leave a small county town and go out to work.”

"To recklessly discuss the superstructure without considering the economic base is simply being irresponsible. And from your current perspective, the path some PhDs and Masters can take—making money by publishing articles—is unreliable."

"But there are other, more legitimate paths. If you do well, you can earn just as much as you would from publishing a lot of articles, and definitely more than you're making now at the county hospital..."

Lu Cheng didn't expect Chen Song to say something so practical.

However, it seems that Chen Song said this to relieve Lu Cheng of his burden.

Lu Cheng then asked, "Teacher Chen, what kind of approach are you referring to?"

Chen Song said, "It's a very professional competition..."

“Your situation is special, so you can participate in any surgical specialty skills competition, such as the Hunan Province Emergency Medicine Young Physician Skills Competition, where the first prize is 40,000 yuan and the special prize is 80,000 yuan.”

"For example, in the orthopedic hand surgery track, the grand prize is as high as 100,000..."

Lu Cheng looked up: "This must be hard to carry, right?"

Chen Song nodded: "It is certainly not easy. The age limit for young doctors is under 35 years old. It is definitely not easy to win the special prize and the first prize."

"However, if you participate in this kind of competition, you can gain the favor of some professors, which will make it much easier to use the money to enroll in surgical training courses or seek further study from professors in the future."

"Moreover, in addition to the provincial competitions, each track also has national competitions, where the prize money is much higher, with the first prize being around 150,000 yuan." Lu Cheng thought for a moment and asked, "Are there really such competitions?"

Chen Song said irritably, "How could it be fake? Let's not talk about anything else, just microsurgery. The China Workers' Technical Association plans to hold an international microsurgery skills competition next year."

"The first 'China Association for Technological Innovation and Technology - Super Microsurgery Vascular Anastomosis Skills Competition' will be held in Chengdu from December 22nd to 24th this year. The competition includes team events, individual elite groups, senior expert groups, and student groups... You can check it out."

Upon hearing this, Lu Cheng nodded: "Okay, Teacher Chen... I'll look into it later..."

"You'd better wait until next year to participate in the competition. You'll understand the specific reasons after you see the detailed requirements." Chen Song smiled somewhat wickedly.

Lu Cheng was a straightforward person. After parting ways with Chen Song, he began to look up information about the China Microsurgical Skills Competition.

Based on current information, there are 50 team teams, 220 elite teams, 19 teams of senior experts, and 15 student teams, covering hospitals from Grade II to Grade III and medical colleges...

Among them, Huashan Hospital was included, and Xiangya Hospital and Xiangya No. 2 Hospital also sent people to participate.

……

After reviewing the competition rules, Lu Cheng felt a headache coming on—

The competition is divided into three stages: Preliminary round: contestants need to complete a 0.2mm end-to-end anastomosis of blood vessels within 30 minutes, with the microscope magnification fixed at 25x.

Semifinals: Blood vessel diameter reduced to 0.1mm, and scoring based on the application of nanoscale sutures.

Final round: Challenge 0.075mm ultra-microscopic vascular anastomosis, increasing the assessment index of vascular clamping stability.

Yes, 0.2mm, 0.1mm, and 0.075mm are in millimeters, not centimeters...

This competition is absolutely insane.

"Teacher Chen, I've already ordered lunch. If there are no patients now, you can rest for a bit," Lu Cheng replied after reading the message.

"Hmm." Chen Song lay back in his chair and played on his phone.

His shifts were monotonous yet 'fulfilling'...

The next day.

After finishing an appendectomy at 7:30 a.m., Lu Cheng hurriedly left his 'emergency surgery shift' early and rushed to the entrance of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital. He then called Lu Nanyong and said, "Uncle, I'm at the entrance."

"Did I come up here to see you?"

Lu Nanyong's voice was calm: "Go straight to the third floor, I'll be right down. I'll take you to see someone..."

About ten minutes later, Lu Cheng saw Lu Nanyong. Lu Nanyong turned his head and said, "I'm taking you to see Director Xu Hongan of the Department of Traditional Chinese Medicine. In addition to his formal training in Traditional Chinese Medicine, he also has family-inherited TCM bone-setting techniques."

"I begged for a long time before Director Xu finally agreed to teach you something and pass on the secrets to you."

"Be polite later," Lu Nanyong said in a low voice.

"Bone setting techniques? Manual reduction?" Lu Cheng certainly knew about manual reduction techniques.

"Yes, isn't your Director Peng against you handling fracture surgery? Then you should tell him not to either. As long as you master the bone-setting techniques, you can completely eradicate their orthopedics department..."

"He'll be begging you then!" Lu Nanyong gritted his teeth, clearly a little angry.

Upon hearing this, Lu Cheng remained silent, carefully observing his uncle's expression. Lu Nanyong took a deep breath to calm himself, then smiled and knocked on the door: "Director Xu, I apologize for disturbing you. This is the nephew I told you about, Lu Cheng..."

"Director Xu!" Lu Cheng also obediently greeted him.

(End of this chapter)