Dear Colleagues,
It is a great pleasure to invite you participate in the microvascular hands-on workshop, organized by the Hellenic Neurosurgical Society. The workshop intends to emphasize on systematic training of basic micro-neurosurgery techniques that will provide the essential skills demanded to handle operating microscopes and microsurgical instruments. Particularly, the scope of this workshop will not only focus on artery and vein dissection and manipulation, but also, on all variations of micro-vascular anastomotic techniques, including nerve coaptations.
Therefore, the target group of the workshop is ALL young neurosurgeons and not only for those intended to practice vascular neurosurgery.
The hands-on sessions of the course begin by training on basic suturing techniques with silicon tubes and latex gloves; the aim is to let you to familiarize yourself with the operating microscope, micro-forceps, scissors and needle-holders. The session will continue on practicing artery and vein dissection as well as micro-anastomoses in fresh cadaver specimen, to further familiarize yourself with basic micro-surgical techniques in “real” tissues.
Following the above basic sessions, a three-day training on anaesthetized animals, is carried through. Variations in the size vessels (aorta/vena cava, neck and femoral vessels) and the type of anastomoses (end-to-end, end-to-side and side-to-side), are arranged to produce a gradually increasing difficulty. The program starts from the elementary level and ends with the most sophisticated microsurgical techniques.
Keystone lectures on neurosurgical topics related to the application of the above techniques in our daily clinical practice, are also included in the workshop’s line of program. These lectures will provide the clinical knowledge necessary for the creative development of micro-surgical techniques (learned in the laboratory), aimed to favor your patient’s treatment in the clinical setting.
Dear trainee, we are confident that upon completion of this one-week training course, you will be able to start applying these techniques in your everyday clinical practice.
We are looking forward to seeing you in Athens and will strive to make this course an invaluable experience for you.
Alexandros Andreou
Course Director