Animals have been widely used as a training model for teaching microsurgery. However, unlimited access to the animal laboratory is not always possible, and increased scrutiny of the ethical use of laboratory animals is a major factor to consider when teaching microsurgery. In such situations, an alternative method is required for microsurgical training techniques, such as medical grading tubes, and surgical gloves. These alternative teaching tools provide an ideal training model and present an alternative for teaching microsurgical techniques. They are readily available and abundant in the laboratory. In addition, these alternative tools can be used to provide initial training before entering the clinical setting. A practice card designed from surgical gloves and medical grading tube was used to practice simple sutures. The training progressed to a more difficult level, using medical-grade tubing for end-to-end anastomosis, end-to-side anastomosis, side-to-side anastomosis, and free graft placement. This alternative proved challenging for the trainees, but improved hand coordination was observed. The alternative models familiarized trainees with the instruments and with developing a surgical approach before moving on to more clinical settings. The use of surgical gloves and medical grading tubes resulted in a significant reduction in the numbers of laboratory animals used for teaching microsurgery, as well as reduced cost.
This study attempts to determine whether a nicotine patch will affect the patency rate of the femoral artery anastomosis in a smoking rat model. Twenty-four rats underwent a smoking protocol of 4 weeks of exposure to cigarette smoke in a smoking chamber at 1 hour per day, using a 1:10 dilution of unfiltered cigarette smoke. Each rat then underwent a femoral artery transaction and anastomosis. Postoperatively, the rats were divided into two groups of 12. Group I had no postoperative smoking or nicotine therapy. Group II had nicotine patch treatment only. The femoral artery was evaluated for flow 7-days postoperatively. At the time of anastomosis, the femoral arteries were smaller in diameter, averaging 0.5 mm (0.4-0.7 mm) as opposed to the normal 0.75-1 mm. All anastomoses were patent at 5 min when the wound was closed. No difference in patency rate occurred with the use of the nicotine patch.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.