Lobectomy

For the past week the doctors have been waiting to operate on this patient with lung cancer. Monday, they finally lowered his blood pressure enough to operate, and they let me in on the surgery to observe. Anytime you enter the theracic cavity, it is a high risk procedure. There is a reason you have ribs protecting this area of your body, so I was pretty excited to be able to watch.

As you can see from the CT scan of this man´s lung, his left lung had a tumor the size of a softball. (On the CT scan the left side is black and normal, the middle white blog is the heart, and the right white blob is the tumor). In order to get to the lung, the surgeons had to operated on the man´s side and remove a rib to gain access to the lung with cancer. This was one of the most fascinating parts for me. The surgeons used a tool that looked like a gardening tool to snap off a rib in two places. When the surgeon actually made the cut, the sound of the ribs breaking resembled the sound of branches being cut, but with a little bit more crunch. I posted a picture of the rib after it had been removed.

Next, the surgeons opened up a bigger space by using a tool that worked like a jack to separate the ribs. After this, they entered the lung tissue and were able to remove the defective lung. At one point in the surgery, the surgeon stopped and let me take a picture of the hole in this man´s chest. While I don´t thinks it is visible in the pictures, I could actually see part of the man´s heart through the whole in his lungs. All in all, despite losing a lot of blood (over a liter) and needing a couple blood transfusions, the surgery went pretty smoothly.