anyone who follows this blog will know i have a tenuous relationship with the ivc (here and here). it is something i've seen only too often and each time it has me on edge. somehow i just can't get used to being up close and personal with an ivc that seems to want to bleed. but even i can laugh at some of our interactions.
i was the senior registrar so when the bone doctors decided to do a spinal fusion at the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebra and they wanted someone to expose the spine for them from the front, i was their go to guy. only problem is i didn't know how to do it. having been in surgery for long enough, it came naturally to me to show no weakness. i couldn't tell them this. i reasoned to myself i'd discuss it with the prof and if he felt i needed assistance then he could offer to help. looking back it wasn't the best thought out plan, all things considered.
the operation was booked for two days time, so the next morning i went to the prof's office and told him that i had been asked to help with exposure for a spinal fusion at level l4-5. he seemed almost not to hear me.
"good." he said as he continued with his work.
"only thing is, prof, i've never done it before." i considered telling him i'd never even seen it before but that was implied in the first statement, i thought. "should i go transperitoneally?"
"do what you are more comfortable with." great help, i thought. well transperitoneally (through the abdominal cavity) it would be then. the abdomen was after all my stomping ground.
the orthopaedic consultant who was going to do the operation was a bit of a legend. he was this super genius whiz kid that everyone doing intermediates was afraid of. he pretty much knew everything about everything and would always be able to dig out a question that you couldn't answer if he wanted to. luckily intermediates were way behind me so i didn't need to worry about offending him too much, but still it was a bit intimidating being asked to get exposure for an academic giant such as this man.
i entered theater at the predetermined time. there were about 3 orthopaedic registrars getting the patient ready. immediately when they saw me they asked how i wanted the patient to lie.
"put him on his back, " i said, oozing confidence, "i'm going through the abdomen." they nodded. and did so. once everything was ready we all started scrubbing and the sister started draping the patient. i tried to envisage what i would be doing in a while. i decided that i'd reflect the right colon up and pull the ivc out of the way, rather than reflecting the left colon up, which would mean i'd have more to do with the aorta. my reason had little to do with the blood vessels but rather had to do with the fact that the right colon can be reflected right out of the way whereas the left colon can't because it continues down to the rectum which is pretty much fixed. truth be told, the aorta is easier to work with than the ivc, but i just felt i'd get more exposure on the right. in my mind i was just trying to convince myself that it was going to be fine when the great orthopaedic consultant entered. he greeted us all and thanked me for my help before quickly going into the theater to make sure everything was in place. moments later he was back.
"the patient is on his back. are you going transperitoneally?" he asked. there was something in his question that bothered me, but this was not the time to seem unsure.
"yes, transperitoneally it is."
"for l4-5 fusion?" he asked it in such a way that the implied answer was that transperitoneally was not a good idea for l4-5 fusion. i thought back to the useful advice of my prof that i should use whatever approach i was more comfortable with. it occurred to me that this was an operation the prof possibly had never done before. besides if this legendary orthopod sounded like he knew something that neither i nor my prof knew, it was probably because he did know something that we didn't know. i felt my heart rate rise. but it was too late. i had no backup (the prof hadn't offered to help) and i would have to stand with my decisions.
"yes. we will be going transperitoneally."
"are you sure." i wasn't.
"of course i'm sure."
"well if you say so, but you are a braver man than me." he replied with a laugh. i felt my heart sink into my shoes. i just smiled.
i went through the abdomen. i flipped up the colon and exposed the ivc. i then mobilised it enough to pull it gently away from the spine....and discovered why transperitoneal approach is not good for l4-5. the ivc splits into two veins which drain the legs at roughly this level. the left one (left common iliac vein) crosses over the spine and when you try to ease the ivc away from the spine it gets pulled so tight it looks like it wants to tear off. but still i mobilised everything enough that their target area was nicely at least visible.
i was the senior registrar so when the bone doctors decided to do a spinal fusion at the 4th and 5th lumbar vertebra and they wanted someone to expose the spine for them from the front, i was their go to guy. only problem is i didn't know how to do it. having been in surgery for long enough, it came naturally to me to show no weakness. i couldn't tell them this. i reasoned to myself i'd discuss it with the prof and if he felt i needed assistance then he could offer to help. looking back it wasn't the best thought out plan, all things considered.
the operation was booked for two days time, so the next morning i went to the prof's office and told him that i had been asked to help with exposure for a spinal fusion at level l4-5. he seemed almost not to hear me.
"good." he said as he continued with his work.
"only thing is, prof, i've never done it before." i considered telling him i'd never even seen it before but that was implied in the first statement, i thought. "should i go transperitoneally?"
"do what you are more comfortable with." great help, i thought. well transperitoneally (through the abdominal cavity) it would be then. the abdomen was after all my stomping ground.
the orthopaedic consultant who was going to do the operation was a bit of a legend. he was this super genius whiz kid that everyone doing intermediates was afraid of. he pretty much knew everything about everything and would always be able to dig out a question that you couldn't answer if he wanted to. luckily intermediates were way behind me so i didn't need to worry about offending him too much, but still it was a bit intimidating being asked to get exposure for an academic giant such as this man.
i entered theater at the predetermined time. there were about 3 orthopaedic registrars getting the patient ready. immediately when they saw me they asked how i wanted the patient to lie.
"put him on his back, " i said, oozing confidence, "i'm going through the abdomen." they nodded. and did so. once everything was ready we all started scrubbing and the sister started draping the patient. i tried to envisage what i would be doing in a while. i decided that i'd reflect the right colon up and pull the ivc out of the way, rather than reflecting the left colon up, which would mean i'd have more to do with the aorta. my reason had little to do with the blood vessels but rather had to do with the fact that the right colon can be reflected right out of the way whereas the left colon can't because it continues down to the rectum which is pretty much fixed. truth be told, the aorta is easier to work with than the ivc, but i just felt i'd get more exposure on the right. in my mind i was just trying to convince myself that it was going to be fine when the great orthopaedic consultant entered. he greeted us all and thanked me for my help before quickly going into the theater to make sure everything was in place. moments later he was back.
"the patient is on his back. are you going transperitoneally?" he asked. there was something in his question that bothered me, but this was not the time to seem unsure.
"yes, transperitoneally it is."
"for l4-5 fusion?" he asked it in such a way that the implied answer was that transperitoneally was not a good idea for l4-5 fusion. i thought back to the useful advice of my prof that i should use whatever approach i was more comfortable with. it occurred to me that this was an operation the prof possibly had never done before. besides if this legendary orthopod sounded like he knew something that neither i nor my prof knew, it was probably because he did know something that we didn't know. i felt my heart rate rise. but it was too late. i had no backup (the prof hadn't offered to help) and i would have to stand with my decisions.
"yes. we will be going transperitoneally."
"are you sure." i wasn't.
"of course i'm sure."
"well if you say so, but you are a braver man than me." he replied with a laugh. i felt my heart sink into my shoes. i just smiled.
i went through the abdomen. i flipped up the colon and exposed the ivc. i then mobilised it enough to pull it gently away from the spine....and discovered why transperitoneal approach is not good for l4-5. the ivc splits into two veins which drain the legs at roughly this level. the left one (left common iliac vein) crosses over the spine and when you try to ease the ivc away from the spine it gets pulled so tight it looks like it wants to tear off. but still i mobilised everything enough that their target area was nicely at least visible.
"there you are." i said with an air of i-told-you-so. "enjoy the rest of the operation. i'm outta here.
"what do you mean you're going?" said the giant. "you stay right where you are. it's your job to keep the ivc out of my way. you just stay there and stand guard over your ivc." this was starting to sound familiar and i was no longer happy to be part of it. but anyway, it wasn't as if i had a choice. besides, how bad could it get?
it could get pretty bad. i stood there with a retractor carefully in position putting just enough traction on my precious ivc without tearing the left iliac vein while the orthopod took the biggest badest instruments i have ever seen and ripped one entire vertebral body out bit by bit. now a vertebral body is somewhat tougher than an ivc and he used amazing amounts of power. i swear there were times he picked the patient off the theater table by his vertebra until a chunk was ripped off and the patient came crashing down again, all the while with me trying with all my might to not pull on the ivc with all my might and yet still keep it out of the way of that ferocious instrument the orthopod was wielding. in my mind he looked like a medieval barbarian with some sort of overly vicious weapon swinging around with just too much force. there were times when i thought he was going to pull the patient right off the table with me and the ivc being dragged down with him. i didn't only fear for that poor ivc but there were times i actually feared for myself.
after a while he got that condemned vertebral body out and replaced it with some sort of metal device. once that was in the ivc was allowed to return to its normal position. thereafter my frayed nerves also started recovering. once again had i stared into the dark eyes of the ivc and lived to talk about it.
p.s the patient survived too.
Apparently a little panic is good for the soul. I remain unconvinced. Great story though.
ReplyDeleteI love your IVC stories. :)
ReplyDeleteBongi 3, ivc 0....or is there a story I am forgetting?
ReplyDeletebongi what approach would you take if you were doing it again?
ReplyDeleteanonymous, a retroperitoneal approach might have been better. that way you get in under the iliac.
ReplyDeletestill i'm much more confident transperitoneally, and it worked, so i might do it the same again anyway.
As a spine surgeon who does a lot of these, I would recommend a retroperitoneal approach. This way you can usually mobilize the whole bifurcation to the patient's right side, exposing the entire L4-5 disc. The L4-5 level is notoriously the most difficult anterior exposure; L5-S1 is easier, because you just need to mobilize the iliacs.
ReplyDeleteI had a terrifying IVC moment a couple of weeks ago. There was a retroperitoneal lymph node dissection for metastatic cancer and on the scan you could see a node between the aorta and the IVC. The boss was operating - I was just holding retractors, sucking, and buzzing, and we got that node out. I thought we were home and hosed but having a feel the boss says that he can feel another node behind the IVC. so I get the job of retracting the IVC while he dissects the node out. there was a bit of bleeding but those were only little feeding arterioles - thankfully we escaped with nothing major needing to be repaired.
ReplyDelete