March 19, Handong Jiang and his team from Department of Respiratory in our hospital successfully performed the first trachea endoscopic argon knife therapy of lung placeholder in Sourthern Division of Renji hospital. The therapy relieved suffocation hazard caused by airway obstruction in the patient with advanced kidney cancer and lung metastases, and gained time for the following treatment.

The 68-year-old patient, Uncle Zhang, was diagnosed with renal clear cell carcinoma associated with intraluminal metastases in right upper lobe a few years ago, and had received radiotherapy of lung cancer. He was complicated with radiation pneumonitis after radiotherapy and meanwhile the intraluminal tumor growth in the right main bronchus; so that he felt obvious shortness of breath accompanied by hypoxia cyanosis, and came to our hospital for treatment. After his admissions in Department of Respiratory in Southern Division of our hospital, the patient immediately underwent airway reconstruction through CT with the collaboration of Department of Radiology. However, due to the complexity of the patient's condition and his symptoms of airway obstruction, the health care team in Department of Respiratory discussed and decided to resect the endotracheal tumor under trachea endoscopic argon knife to relieve the suffocation hazard which might occur at any time. Director of Department of Respiratory, Handong Jiang, led to design the comprehensive treatment plan for the patient, and Dr. Xiaoming Tan directed the surgery for treatment. After surgery, the patient’s airway obstruction symptoms were quickly relieved, and this gained time for further surgical resection treatment of kidney cancer and lung cancer for the patient.

Argon knife has the advantages of less bleeding, better haemostatic effects and shorter operative time. It has no charring and vaporization during the operation, and causes little damage to normal tissues, which can be used in trachea and other easily perforated parts. The endoscopic surgical field is clear, so it is widely used in clinical. The success of the operation has accumulated valuable experience in endotrachea treatment of complex airway diseases in Department of Respiratory, and also brings the Gospel and sends hope to more patients with complex respiratory diseases.  (Reporter Liyan Zhang / Translator Weiwei Zhang)