Needling the liver: Time of Young Lion

Excerpt

I came across a copy of an essay written by Professor Tadayoshi Takemoto (Emeritus Professor at the Institute of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Women’s Medical University [TWMU]) that describes the study of endoscopy in the Institute. In that essay he mentions my struggle to develop percutaneous transhepatic cholangio-drainage (PTCD, or percutaneous transhepatic biliary drainage [PTBD]) for treatment of obstructive jaundice when I was a resident doctor. At that time, we did not have endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP), not to mention sonography, computed tomography (CT), or magnetic resonance imagine (MRI); it was difficult to diagnose or treat jaundice. The essay is a description of a young doctor struggling in clinical studies, written from the viewpoint of Professor Takemoto as an outside observer. At that time, I was a resident surgical doctor at the Institute of Gastroenterology, Tokyo Women’s Medical University established by Professor Komei Nakayama (who passed away in 2005); Professor Takemoto was a professor and chairman of the Department of Gastroenterology and also chief of the Gastroenterological Endoscopy Department. Professor Takemoto has no experience of having worked together with me but wrote about my efforts through his great insight. …