Travels of a Female Physician in the Ming Dynasty

Since the successful promotion of hemostatic forceps, the Imperial Medical Bureau has been thriving and the morale of the imperial doctors has been greatly boosted.

The success rate of operations has increased, patients have recovered faster, and even the emperor has praised the Imperial Hospital's rapid progress in medical skills several times, which makes me feel a little embarrassed.

However, the improvement of modern medical devices is an endless process.

In surgery, although suturing in trauma surgery has improved, visceral surgery remains a challenge.

Ordinary silk thread is not suitable for suturing internal organs, especially the intestines, stomach and other parts. Traditional sutures are prone to infection and may even cause the sutures to rupture, worsening the patient's condition.

"Visceral sutures?" Zhu Yuan's face was filled with confusion when I mentioned this new project. "Miss Yang, aren't the sutures we use now quite good? Look, they sew up external injuries very well, and the patients recover quite quickly."

I shook my head and patiently explained, "External injuries are certainly not a problem, but internal organs are different. You know, after internal organ surgery, the patient's body needs to absorb the sutures. If the suture material is not suitable, not only will the wound not heal, it may also cause serious infection and complications. We need to find a suture material that can be absorbed by the body without causing inflammation."

Zhu Yuan scratched his head, his expression abruptly changing as if he had suddenly realized something. "Oh, so that's how it is! Our wire can actually 'disappear'?"

I nodded. "Yes, in modern medicine there's something called 'absorbable sutures.' This concept was still new in the Ming Dynasty, but the principle is actually very simple. It uses natural materials, such as gut, which, after special treatment, can be slowly absorbed by the body, eliminating the need for secondary suture removal."

"Gut?" Zhu Yuan's eyes widened. "You mean...animal intestines? That's too weird!"

I smiled. "It sounds a bit strange, but this material has actually been used in similar applications for a long time. The fibers of animal intestines are very fine and can be used as sutures after processing. Moreover, they will slowly decompose in the body and will not cause any harm to the human body."

Zhu Yuan's mouth dropped open slightly, clearly shocked by the information. "So intestines can be used in this way! Miss Yang, I'm really admiring you more and more. Let's quickly find the ingredients. Which company's intestines are we looking for this time?"

I smiled helplessly. "Don't worry. We need to first try out which animal's gut is most suitable, and then consider how to process it to ensure its strength and absorbability."

In the following days, Zhu Yuan and I began to search for suitable animal gut materials all over the capital.

Let's start with the more common pig and sheep intestines. After all, these two animals were common in the Ming Dynasty market and were relatively easy to obtain. Zhu Yuan even went to the butchers to "bargain" with them, leaving them confused: "Hey, if you want to buy meat, just buy meat. Why are you staring at my intestines?"

Zhu Yuan was always beaming with joy every time he came back, as if he had discovered some treasure. "Miss Yang, let me tell you, the butcher looked at me with confusion today. He probably thought I was crazy. But I brought back some of the best pig intestines, enough for our experiments!"

Reluctantly, I accepted the intestines he brought back and began experimenting with some modern medical treatment methods. Making gut is not simple; it requires cutting open the intestines, cleaning them, removing fat and other impurities, then sun-drying or air-drying them, and finally treating them in a special way to increase their strength and elasticity.

"Miss Yang, your cooking skills are truly impressive." Zhu Yuan praised me as he watched me busy, "Washing and drying, it's like making pickled meat."

"You know what? The steps are quite similar," I said jokingly. "But pickled meat is for eating, and intestines are life-saving."

Zhu Yuan chuckled and nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, life-saving bacon, uh no, life-saving intestines!"

After several rounds of experiments, we finally produced the first batch of gut samples.

These gut strings look delicate and flexible, thinner than the silk strings we used before, but just as strong.

I handed Zhu Yuan a piece of gut string and asked him to pull it hard. He grinned and exclaimed, "Wow, this string is quite strong! I really can't tell."

I nodded. "This is the advantage of gut. It's thin yet strong, and it can be slowly absorbed by the body. Next, we need to ask the imperial doctors to try it out and see how effective it is."

The next day, we took the catgut to the Imperial Hospital.

When several senior imperial doctors saw this new material, their faces were full of curiosity.

After all, they had never seen sutures made from animal intestines.

However, after my detailed explanation, the imperial doctors immediately understood the advantages of this thread.

"Miss Yang, this catgut is truly unheard of!" An old imperial physician picked up the catgut, examined it carefully, and exclaimed, "Such a delicate and flexible thread is indeed a good idea to use for internal organ sutures."

Another young imperial physician tried to suture a simulated wound using intestinal thread.

He sewed very smoothly, and the flexibility and strength of the thread made the process much easier.

He was pleasantly surprised and said, "This thread is very tough. The suturing is very smooth, and there is no need to worry about the thread cutting the internal organs."

Zhu Yuan was grinning from ear to ear: "Of course! This was made by our Miss Yang herself!"

The imperial doctors nodded in praise, "With this kind of thread, we no longer have to worry about infections and complications caused by sutures when performing internal organ surgery. Miss Yang, you are truly talented!"

I smiled and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Although the improvement of visceral sutures may seem insignificant, it is a crucial part of the operation.

With this wire, the patient's postoperative recovery will be smoother and the success rate of the operation will be further improved.

Zhu Yuan came over and whispered to me, "Miss Yang, do you think the Emperor will reward us again this time?"

I smiled helplessly and said, "Why are you always staring at the reward? We do these things to save people, not for rewards."

Zhu Yuan scratched his head and chuckled, "I know, I know. But after all, we've done a lot of hard work. Saving lives is important, but rewards are nice too!"

A few months later, the use of catgut gradually spread in the Imperial Hospital and throughout the country.

Not only the Imperial Medical Service in the capital, but also medical clinics and medical schools across the country began to use this new type of suture. Especially in some complex visceral surgeries, the use of intestinal sutures significantly improved the success rate of the operation and reduced postoperative infections and complications.

"Miss Yang, what are you going to do next?" Zhu Yuan asked me excitedly one day.

I smiled, already having a new plan in mind: "Next, we can consider improving the anesthesia methods used during surgery. The current anesthesia method may be usable, but it is too painful for the patient. If we can find a more effective anesthesia method, the surgery will become more humane."

"Anesthesia?" Zhu Yuan looked confused. "How do we change this?"

I nodded and explained, "The anesthetics we use now are effective, but they're short-lived, and sometimes patients wake up during surgery. If we could find a more potent and long-lasting anesthetic, the pain during surgery could be completely alleviated, and the risks to patients would be greatly reduced."

Zhu Yuan immediately perked up when he heard this: "Okay! Let's get started!"