The Lorraine Cancer Institute lends its blocks to the Nancy University Hospital for urgent operations outside Covid

It is necessary “push the walls“, according to the time-honored expression. As during the first wave, the Lorraine cancer institute is once again opening its doors to surgeons from the Nancy-Brabois CHRU, to allow them to operate on patients who do not have the Covid , but who urgently need treatment, because as Olivier Rangeard, head of the anesthesia department and president of the medical establishment commission of the cancer institute, reminds us, other diseases do not stop during the pandemic.

Deferred prevention or reconstruction interventions

“We must continue to care for patients who have cancer. The Lorraine Cancer Institute is therefore opening up the capacities of its operating theater to the maximum to accommodate the CHU’s surgical teams for operations relating to this treatment “ he explains. But this involves deprogramming certain non-urgent operations.

Olivier Rangeard prefers to talk about “prioritization” : “there are some procedures that may be postponed, such as preventive or reconstructive surgeries, for example for breast cancer. “Of course, even if it is not vital, it is still problematic. “We try not to deprogram patients who have already been deprogrammed once, but sometimes we will have to do it. It’s true that psychologically it’s not easy“.

Anesthesiologists, a rare commodity

Concretely, the teams of the CHU and the institute are mixing. The rare commodity is “the anesthesia teams, doctors, nurses, who lend a hand in the intensive care units“. So the institute is also providing human reinforcements in this area,”and we all work together“, insists Olivier Rangeard, knowing that the experiment has already been carried out during the first wave. “Now the teams know each other; there are even certain teams, such as in urology, which have been operating within our walls for a year. “

Olivier Rangeard takes advantage to recall the importance of screening: “We saw, especially during the first wave, people who stayed at home instead of consulting. And then, we saw people arriving with diseases at very advanced stages, but we know that the more the disease is advanced, the more difficult the care. It is necessary to continue to be tested, to go to see your doctor, your gynecologist, if there is the slightest doubt..”

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