Microsurgery courses

[cutsman]

I’m a 2nd year general surgery resident that is about to go out for dedicated research. I’m looking to match into Vascular surgery ultimately. I was recently speaking to a mentor in my program who recommended that I consider a microsurgery course before I return to help develop and maintain my surgical skills before returning from the lab. (Note: I won’t be doing any microsurgery as part of my research)

Now, this may have been a comment on my poor tissue handling in the OR...but I wanted to get the forum’s impression as to:

1) would this be worthwhile for me from a skills development standpoint
2) are there particular courses that would be better geared to a general surgeon/future vascular surgeon say vs plastics/hand/etc

Thanks

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[LucidSplash]

I’m a 2nd year general surgery resident that is about to go out for dedicated research. I’m looking to match into Vascular surgery ultimately. I was recently speaking to a mentor in my program (a surgical oncologist) who recommended that I consider a microsurgery course before I return to help develop and maintain my surgical skills before returning from the lab. (Note: I won’t be doing any microsurgery as part of my research)

Now, this may have been a comment on my poor tissue handling in the OR...but I wanted to get the forum’s impression as to:

1) would this be worthwhile for me from a skills development standpoint
2) are there particular courses that would be better geared to a general surgeon/future vascular surgeon say vs plastics/hand/etc

Thanks

Microsurgery as in with the microscope?

I have 3.5x loupes and am finishing up my vascular fellowship at a high volume center. We don’t use the microscope. I don’t know that a course like this would be helpful to you in vascular. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, just that it wouldn’t be something you would use in a future career in vascular.

 

[HighPriest]

Well.

I did the Mayo microsurgery course. It was fantastic. But, yeah, for plastics (or free flaps in my case). Probably not helpful for vascular. We were sewing 0.5-0.9 mm vessels in many cases (rat femorals). It was great, though. You'd anesthetize them, open up the thigh, clamp and cut the vessels, sew them back together, and the next day you'd re-explore and find out how your anastomosis did.

So, not helpful for you. But if anyone else sees the thread title and actually is interested in plastics micro courses - that's a guddun.

 

[HighPriest]

That's Mayo Clinic in Rochester. Not Helman's.

 

[cutsman]

Microsurgery as in with the microscope?

I have 3.5x loupes and am finishing up my vascular fellowship at a high volume center. We don’t use the microscope. I don’t know that a course like this would be helpful to you in vascular. I’m not saying it’s a bad idea, just that it wouldn’t be something you would use in a future career in vascular.

That’s what I figured. I know that the microscope isn’t part of the Vascular toolset and I was skeptical of the utility of microsurgery training. My mentor is a smart guy but it’s not his field.

That being said, are you aware of any technical courses that would be useful? Or am I best off stealing some prolene and Gortex and working out stuff myself while I’m out of residency?

 

[LucidSplash]

That’s what I figured. I know that the microscope isn’t part of the Vascular toolset and I was skeptical of the utility of microsurgery training. My mentor is a smart guy but it’s not his field.

That being said, are you aware of any technical courses that would be useful? Or am I best off stealing some prolene and Gortex and working out stuff myself while I’m out of residency?

I’m not aware of any technical courses. My residency had a skills lab we could go to, but yeah honestly some Castros and prolene and PTFE are your best bet IMHO. Just treat the PTFE like a vein, not touching the inside, etc.