In the morning of July 4th, the 20th batch of medical aid team members from China (Hunan) to Sierra Leone teamed up for the implementation of large breast mass resection and breast conserving surgery for a patient in Sierra Leone under high thoracic epidural anesthesia. This is also the first surgical operation of the 20th batch of medical aim team to Sierra Leone.
This is the 4th day since the start date of the 20th batch of medical aid team to Sierra Leone. At a medical symposium, the Director of the China-Sierra Leone Friendship Hospital Kalu hoped that Xiangya experts could help him complete a breast conserving surgery. The medical aim team immediately held a preoperative discussion, and the attended experts included Li Jindong, Associate Professor of Xiangya Hospital, Duan Lunxi, Associate Professor of the Second Xiangya Hospital, Yang Jianfu, Associate Professor of the Third Xiangya Hospital, Hou Changzheng, an anesthesiologist, and Xiao Xiaoqiong, a nurse at Xiangya Hospital.
This is a 29-year-old unpregnant patient. A breast lump was found 1 year ago. The lump grew larger and the diameter was about 10*12cm. Because of the lack of medical treatment and poor medical conditions in Sierra Leone, it was impossible to perform surgery. The patient came to see a doctor after she heard that Xiangya experts came to the China-Sierra Leone Friendship Hospital for medical aid. In the preoperative discussion, Xiangya experts made corresponding plans for all possible accidents. Because the lump is too huge to cause dense adhesion to the surrounding tissue, local anesthesia would not achieve the analgesic effect, and the patient cannot tolerate surgery, it is best to choose general anesthesia. However, due to the inability of the anesthesia machine to perform general anesthesia, it is appropriate to choose epidural anesthesia. Because of the high risk of high epidural anesthesia, any carelessness may bring life risk to the patient due to respiratory depression. Therefore, the anesthesiologist Changzheng Hou expertly performed T4-T5 continuous high epidural anesthesia for the patient. During the operation, the patient kept praising: "Chinese doctors are awesome and the surgery is not painful." There were twice of power failure during the nearly 2-hour operation, 10-15 min each time. Because the high frequency electrotome frequently stopped doing work during the operation, the chief surgeon Duan Lunxi had to give up using the electrotome, instead, with his skillful operation skills, he used his hands to conduct blunt dissection. The lump was completely removed, and the breast tissue was intact.
The Director of Kalu, who was on the same table, gave a thumbs-up to Xiangya experts. He said that with that little hardware, Xiangya experts successfully implemented high epidural anesthesia, and successfully completed the complete removal of the lump and breast-conserving surgery; it is the first success of this kind in the history of the China-Sierra Leone Friendship Hospital.
Source: The Third Xiangya Hospital
