UK based microsurgical training

Abstract

This describes the UK history of the evolution of microsurgical training. The author has been involved since the start in 1979 and took a sole teaching role in the courses 2 years later. Before teaching microsurgery the necessary skills were obtained by the performance of various organ transplants in mice, rats and rabbits to investigate organ storage and immunosuppression. This experience identified the pitfalls of microsurgery and amplified the then identified need for meticulous microsurgical training. A basic microsurgical program was then instigated to provide step by step exercises of increasing difficulty. This consisted of microscope set-up, correct positioning, instruments, simulated suture exercises, dissection techniques, end to end arterial and venous anastomosis, end to side anastomosis, interpositional vein grafts, nerve anastomosis and groin flaps – all performed on an anaesthetised rat. Latterly we are now running advanced workshops incorporating supramicrosurgical exercises in the chicken (thigh) and the rat. The microsurgical workshops are still running 41 years later!