Stars are operating!

Every patient wants a good, experienced doctor to deal with his case as it greatly increases the chances of recovery. In this sense, several Irkutsk patients suffering from malignant neoplasms were incredibly lucky: they were operated on by some of the best doctors on the planet. Moreover, patients were treated absolutely for free and right in Irkutsk!

In fact, for the third day, in our city, a unique forum called “The International Baikal Nippon Medical Skills” has been ongoing, where the stars of medical world have participated: both from the Land of the Rising Sun and from leading Russian clinics. They not only read reports saturated with the latest and relevant medical information, but also showed them in practice during the master classes - operations.

For example, a number of endoscopic operations were performed within the framework of the forum by the head of the hospital endoscopy department of the National Cancer Center of Tokyo, MD, professor Ichiro Oda. In just one hour, he has performed a surgery on a 68-year-old patient with early esophagus cancer. The technique used by him relieves patients not only from abdominal incisions associated with surgical operations, but even from the small openings necessary for laparoscopic intervention. This technique is especially indispensable in cases where patients are people of advanced age, for whom each surgical operation poses a huge risk.

            

“It cannot be said that this operation is something fundamentally new: we have been performing such endoscopic interventions for more than a year,” commented Sergey Zhuravlev, head of the endoscopy department of the Regional Cancer Center. “However, it is always very interesting and instructive to watch how a great master such as Mr. Ichiro Oda works.” Although this operation is standard, when performed by our Japanese colleague there is a number of features and nuances that greatly affect success of the treatment.

And an 81-year-old patient with stomach cancer, also detected at an early stage, was operated on by the deputy chief endoscopist of the Ministry of Health of Russia, the head of the surgical endoscopic department of the A.V. Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery, MD, professor Yuri Starkov..

“We have performed a hybrid laparoendoscopic organ-saving operation. Usually at this stage endoscopic intervention is enough - removal of the tumor by dissection in the submucosal layer. But, as it became clear in recent years, even with early cancer, 18% of patients have metastases to the nearest regional lymph nodes. This means that gastrectomy is necessary - stomach removal and full lymphatic dissection,” said Yuri Starkov, leaving the operating room. - For such cases, a “crafty” technique was developed. The hybrid operation combines the endoscopic stage with access through the stomach and the laparoscopic stage, where the lymph nodes are navigated using a special dye. After determining the lymph nodes into which lymph drainage from the tumor will occur, they are sent for an express histological examination. And, if metastases are detected in the sentinel lymph node, then the volume of surgery is changed in a timely manner. If no metastases in sentinel lymph nodes are present, the intervention is limited to organ-saving intraluminal dissection. This approach provides oncological adequacy and good cancer treatment results. I would like to emphasize that such intervention is very complex. Specialists who equally possess both endoscopic and laparoscopic techniques are required for operation.

            

Today, in Russia, operations of this type are performed only in a few clinics in Moscow and St. Petersburg. However, for the Irkutsk patient it is much more important that Yuri Starkov has removed the tumor, while preserving the stomach. Within a few hours after the operation, the patient was be able to sit down and get up, and a few days later he has returned to a normal healthy life.