Chapter 411 - 253: Wu Ting’s Tough Stance: Sorry, Not Interested
Chapter 411: Chapter 253: Wu Ting’s Tough Stance: Sorry, Not Interested
In the conference room, only Wu Ting’s voice could be heard:
"...The aortic valve is one of the four valves of the heart, located between the left ventricle and the aorta. The aorta is a large blood vessel that supplies the body with oxygenated blood. When the heart beats, the left ventricle contracts, pushing blood through the three sensitive cusps that make up the aortic valve. When the left ventricle relaxes, the aortic valve closes to prevent blood from flowing back into the left ventricle... So, you can think of the aortic valve as a one-way valve!"
"As people age, the aortic valve can become calcified or lose its flexibility due to disease. This makes it difficult for the valve to open, causing the valve opening to narrow. Blood flow is obstructed, which reduces the amount of blood pumped into the aorta and distributed to the rest of the body... This is the complete pathogenesis for this patient..."
"The replacement procedure we’re performing involves replacing the original valve with an artificial one. This requires a delivery system. However, the patient’s dilated aorta and severely calcified valve leaflets make delivery difficult. Furthermore, it’s very hard to keep the valve coaxial with the perpendicular centerline of the annulus plane. This is the biggest challenge in this type of surgery..."
"Specifically, unstable deployment of the artificial valve or varying implantation depths in different sinuses after release can cause paravalvular leaks. This can easily lead to postoperative complications and defects..."
Wu Ting composed herself and looked at Director Pang.
"Therefore, I believe the core difficulty right now is how to deliver the artificial valve to the optimal position precisely and easily, and at the same time, how to achieve coaxial alignment between the artificial valve and the annulus plane’s perpendicular centerline!"
Listening to Wu Ting’s in-depth analysis and detailed reasoning, Director Pang’s eyes lit up. ’This Wu Ting really has a profound understanding of aortic valve replacement,’ he thought. ’Her analysis hits the nail on the head.’
Director Shao and Director Shen nodded silently, also very satisfied with Wu Ting’s answer.
Huang Dian and the other two were even more impressed. They had also assisted in several aortic valve replacement surgeries and understood the principles, but they couldn’t explain it as clearly and simply as Wu Ting, nor could they get straight to the heart of the matter like she did.
Director Pang clapped his hands in satisfaction, then presented his own ideas and approach.
"Dr. Wu, everyone, what I’ve brought with me this time is a newly improved plan from our team. Of course, it’s still in the exploratory clinical trial phase."
"It involves improving the valve delivery system by modifying the original fixed-angle head of the delivery system into a movable delivery device with a controllable angle."
"However, it’s currently mechanically adjusted and can only be set to three fixed angles. Our ideal state is to achieve a system that is automatically adjusted by a program—a controllable-angle delivery system that can be flexibly adjusted to any angle!"
Hearing Director Pang’s explanation of the concept, everyone’s eyes lit up. An adjustable delivery head was something that had never been seen in clinical practice before.
"We can currently only achieve mechanical angle adjustments of 3°, 9°, and 15°. Compared to the classic delivery systems available now, this is already a huge improvement. However, mechanical adjustment still has significant limitations. Moreover, the technology itself has its own constraints, and it still can’t solve the problem of aortic valve replacement in cases with complex, deformed blood vessels."
"But for today’s patient, it should be able to solve the problem perfectly. This is also a line of thinking I wanted to offer Dr. Wu by participating in this consultation."
"Of course, I also understand that going from mechanical control to automated, fine-tuned adjustments at any angle are two completely different things."
Director Pang knew about the research capabilities of Wu Ting’s team. Since they could develop the assistive technology for the Perfect Triple Method, he believed they also had the potential to create this kind of automated, controllable valve delivery system!
Director Pang was, in effect, casting a brick to attract a jade—he was eagerly looking forward to Wu Ting taking up the challenge and perfecting the concept!