Abstract
IntroductionMicrosurgery courses, taught external to surgical training programs, are essential for acquiring the high level of technical skill required for clinical proficiency.MethodsThe Frankfurt microsurgery course is a 5-day, intensive course that teaches arterial and venous anastomosis using end-to-end, end-to-side, one-way-up, continuous-suture, and vessel graft techniques. During the course, the instructor records the level of skill (in-course data) achieved by each trainee by assessing anastomosis completion and patency. Demographic information is also collected. Post-course trainees are invited to complete an online survey (post-course data) to get their opinions of the courses’ effectiveness.ResultsThe in-course “skill achievement” and post-course “course effectiveness” data are presented below. In-course data: 94.8 and 59.9% of participants completed patent end-to-end arterial and venous anastomoses, respectively, while 85.4% performed a patent end-to-side anastomosis. 96.1 and 57.1% of participants who attempted arterial and venous anastomoses using the one-way-up technique were successful, as were 90.9% of those attempting continuous-suture technique. Patent venous grafts were performed by 54.7% of participants.Post-course dataAll respondents indicated significant improvement of their microsurgical skills after taking the course. 66.7% of respondents considered the full-time presence of the instructor to be the most valuable aspect of the course. All respondents would highly recommend the course to colleagues.ConclusionThe microcourse significantly increased trainees’ clinical microsurgery skills, confidence, and the number of clinical cases they perform. Of all the anastomosis techniques taught, venous anastomosis and grafting were the most difficult to learn. The presence of a full-time experienced instructor was most important.
Highlights
Microsurgery courses, taught external to surgical training programs, are essential for acquiring the high level of technical skill required for clinical proficiency
Microsurgery requires a high level of refined motor skills and is used in several different surgical subspecialties, such as plastic and reconstructive, hand, vascular, neuro, orthopedics/trauma, and maxillofacial surgeries and obstetrics and gynecology, ophthalmology, and otolaryngology, as well as in animal research
Microsurgery is a skill that requires fine manual dexterity and like many skills acquired in surgery is primarily taught through the traditional “see one, do one, teach one” method [1]
Summary
Microsurgery courses, taught external to surgical training programs, are essential for acquiring the high level of technical skill required for clinical proficiency. In-course data: 94.8 and 59.9% of participants completed patent end-to-end arterial and venous anastomoses, respectively, while 85.4% performed a patent end-to-side anastomosis. Microsurgery is a skill that requires fine manual dexterity and like many skills acquired in surgery is primarily taught through the traditional “see one, do one, teach one” method [1]. While this time-tested method has been largely successful for teaching many surgical skills, microsurgery is an. Most importantly, live animal vessels form clots at the microsurgical anastomosis, an invaluable indicator of technical proficiency and ultimate success of the anastomosis [8,9,10]
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