Superficial Inferior Epigastric Artery Flap Using Supermicrosurgery in Rats: A Novel Training System for Supermicrosurgery

Abstract

Supermicrosurgery (anastomosis of less than 0.5 mm in diameter) is widespread in current reconstructive microsurgery, including fingertip replantation, lymphaticovenular anastomosis for lymphedema, and perforator-to-perforator anastomosis. Despite the increasing popularity in clinical application, there is no experimental model available to develop a supermicrosurgical technique. The authors described a strategy for development of a new model for training.