An excellent microscope for supermicrochirurgies

Photo courtesy, CHUM
Dr. Ali Izadpanah (left) looks in the microscope to connect the blood vessels to the lymphatic vessels during the operation of seven hours. These vessels are not visible to the naked eye.

Hugo Duchaine

Wednesday, 31 January 2018 22:46

UPDATE
Wednesday, 31 January 2018 22:46

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The powerful microscope japanese bought by the CHUM for the first time in Quebec to do surgery on tiny blood vessels less than a millimeter.

Called ” supermicrochirurgies “, they can drain lymphoedema, a swelling caused by an abnormal accumulation of lymph fluid in the arms or legs.

On Wednesday, The Journal was able to attend the second operation carried out by the CHUM, a delicate intervention of approximately seven hours, during which a surgeon-plastic surgeon connects the blood vessels to lymph vessels so that the liquid can drain out.

This surgery was previously only available in Asia and in the United States, the microscope Mikata, a device of $ 460,000, which can grow up to 80 times what it observes.

It allows to reduce more than one-third the swelling and pain of a patient, because lymphedema is a chronic disease without a known healing.

Alerted

The head of department of plastic surgery at the CHUM, Dr. Michel Alain Danino, said he was alerted by the number of Canadians on waiting lists in the United States and willing to pay thousands of dollars for this operation.

In fact, it was this that had to do Olivier Lagacé, the first patient to have undergone a drainage lymphatic-venous the last week at the CHUM. The 23-year-old has seen his left thigh swell up three years ago, a few months after a motorcycle accident, where he was wounded in the hip.

He had to wear compression stockings most of the time on the leg to slow the swelling. In spite of everything, he struggled to sit and was in pain as soon as it folded over the leg.

“All the daily movements, such as emptying the dishwasher, were complicated because of the pain,” said the young actuary, who feared even having to make a stroke on his career, because he could not stay seated all day.

Satisfied

Dr. Ali Izadpanah, which was performed, is satisfied with the results after a week. But as the extra liquid is discharged within the tiny vessels, he says he must wait several months before seeing concrete results.

The latter, who did his training at the prestigious Mayo Clinic in the United States, expects to be busy in the coming weeks as approximately 155 000 Canadians suffer from lymphedema.