Practicing Medical Skills in a Small Clinic

This can’t be too certain.

He can only make a comprehensive diagnosis based on the known information and the patient’s medical history, age, and nature of work.

Some tests conducted after the patient was admitted show that it should be a single nerve being affected.

Although the patient’s palm cannot straighten, there is sensation in the thenar, and the muscle strength of other nerve-controlled muscles in the left upper limb is normal. This indicates that the cause may lie in the radial nerve.

It is not closely related to the musculocutaneous nerve, dorsal nerve, or palmar nerve.

The lesion is now localized in the radial nerve, but the specific cause and other situations remain unknown.

MRI shows that there is no abnormality in the patient’s cervical spine, which is a good thing.

The possibility of cervical spine compression or lesion can be basically ruled out.

The spinal nerve should be fine.

This further narrows down the lesion area. It is basically localized in the small region of the radial nerve in the left upper limb.

"To confirm this diagnosis, a more in-depth examination is definitely necessary. Neurological diseases can be partially detected by electromyography. But for this case, simply checking an electromyographic signal is definitely not enough. The remaining intuitive and effective examination method is probably only surgical exploration."

Li Jingsheng slightly furrowed his brow.

Continuously analyzing the patient’s situation.

Surgical exploration is often difficult for patients and their families to accept, and even doctors try to avoid it.

Because it is considered an invasive examination.

If the condition is detected, it’s good; if not, who knows how the family and patient would react?

Encountering unreasonable ones, they might call the hospital’s complaint phone, then the supervisory department, and then contact media reporters.

In short, causing all sorts of disturbances.

Doctors’ situations are often particularly passive.

Some things aren’t necessarily clear even if you have reason on your side.

Therefore, when doctors consider examination methods, if two methods have the same diagnostic significance, one is a two to three thousand MRI, and the other is a few hundred surgical exploration.

The doctor will unquestionably choose the former.

For no other reason, everyone is afraid of causing trouble.

"Anyway, I’m just a medical assistant. If I answer wrongly, make a mistake, Director Zhong is still here." Thinking this, Li Jingsheng hesitated no more and decisively applied for surgical exploration.

And specified the specific exploration location.

After the application, the results came out quickly.

Surgical exploration found that the main trunk of the radial nerve showed a fusiform lesion, and the entire nerve was almost completely severed.

It seems applying for surgical exploration was correct.

Imaging examinations are difficult to detect such deep nerve ruptures.

No wonder the electromyographic signals disappeared along the way.

The cause is now basically identified.

He sighed in relief but realized that to confirm the specific cause, further investigation is required.

How did this radial nerve rupture?

Did the patient tear the nerve due to excessive force at work?

It’s clearly unlikely.

Generally, the structures of various human tissues and organs have evolved over millions of years to become very scientific and reasonable.

For instance, the most important spinal nerves are protected inside the spinal bones.

The brain is protected inside the sturdy cranial bones.

To reduce the damage from head impacts, our head has even evolved into an oval shape.

As for blood vessels, those visible on the surface are all veins.

Vital arteries that, if cut, would lead to rapid blood loss and death are mostly hidden deep inside.

No matter how much force the patient uses at work, it wouldn’t specifically tear the radial nerve.

The rupture site also doesn’t match a place prone to tears.

Li Jingsheng examined the pictures taken during the surgical exploration and found no obvious compression near the almost ruptured radial nerve.

However, during surgical exploration, a segment of about eight to nine centimeters of nerve edema was found at the elbow, with mild adhesion to surrounding tissues.

Moreover, both ends of the diseased nerve segment appeared constricted like bands, almost severed.

We can see some degrees of twisting at both ends of the nerve at the constricted site.

Then it’s also apparent that blood vessels around the nerve are significantly proliferated.

Two or three smaller blood vessels even crossed the nerve.

Could it be possible that these few small blood vessels crossing caused nerve twisting and narrowing?

After analyzing and deducing, he ruled out this possibility.

Given just the pictures, what is seen is certainly not as intuitive as a personal surgical exploration.

However, these three small blood vessels couldn’t have caused such severe nerve lesions.

It must be mentioned that human blood vessels are not static.

They can continually grow and change like tree roots.

For example, the most important human heart.

Many people must have eaten pig heart, an unchewable organ with many parts particularly resilient.

This is because the heart originates from the fusion of two blood vessels.

When Xiaobao is inside the mom’s belly, he initially has no heart.

The fusion of two blood vessels, followed by a series of complex proliferations and changes, forms a human heart.

Research on this technology is already underway abroad.

Using the patient’s own blood vessels, they aim to recreate a new artificial heart and implant it into the patient’s chest.

Unfortunately, this has not yet been successful.

The embryonic development process of Xiaobao is something artificial technology can’t fully replicate.

Perhaps in the near future, when this technology achieves a major breakthrough and truly creates an artificial heart from two large blood vessels, heart disease patients will have newfound hope.

To know: Right now, replacing an artificial heart not only starts in the millions but also requires an external power source.

The patient must carry at least two batteries wherever they go.