He cut the cystic duct between the two vascular clamps and ligated both the proximal and distal ends. Drawing on his profound knowledge of regional anatomy, Hu Xiaotian located the cystic artery, then cut and ligated it.
Next came the dissection of the gallbladder. He incised its serosa beneath the membrane at the junction between either side of the gallbladder and the liver surface, a finger's breadth from the liver's edge. Xue Shengkang's gallbladder appeared to have suffered acute inflammation recently, and the adhesions were severe. Hu Xiaotian used his fingers to separate the loose tissue beneath the incised serosa, working from the fundus and the neck toward the middle. Once the dissection was complete, he removed the gallbladder, cutting and ligating the communicating vessels and small aberrant bile ducts between it and the liver to prevent postoperative bleeding, bile leakage, and other complications.
He stopped the slight oozing in the gallbladder bed by applying pressure with gauze soaked in hot saline. Once the bleeding had stopped, he used silk thread to place interrupted sutures in the serosa on either side of the gallbladder bed, preventing further oozing or adhesions.
Seeing that the operative field was clean, with no bleeding or bile contamination, and that all the ligatures were secure, Hu Xiaotian decided not to place a drain. Finally, he positioned the greater omentum between the liver, gallbladder region, and duodenum to prevent postoperative adhesions between the liver and gastrointestinal tract. He had Shi Kuan remove Xue Shengkang's Lumbar Support, then sutured the abdominal wall layer by layer.
Watching Hu Xiaotian's orderly movements, Shi Kuan admired him beyond measure. How could anyone know the structure of the human body so thoroughly? He would never have believed it without seeing it with his own eyes.
Only after Hu Xiaotian finished closing