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Preliminary report: Attitudes and Trends in Microsurgery Training
Jason M Prigozen, MD
Robert Lohman, MD
Mary Huang, MS3
William Abouhassan, MD
Risal Djohan, MD
Cleveland Clinic
2010-04-01
Presenter: Jason Prigozen, MD
Affidavit:
Director Name:
Author Category: Resident/Fellow
Abstract Category: General Reconstruction
We were interested to know if US plastic surgery trainees perceived that they had been adequately trained in microvascular techniques, and to what extent they expected to utilize microsurgery in the future.
A 10 questions survey was sent to every plastic surgery resident expected to graduate from a US program in 2009 or 2010. This was distributed, collected and analyzed online using SurveyMonkeyTM.
The overwhelming majority of respondents are at independent training programs. About half of the respondents plan to join academic practices; the others are equally divided between those who plan a solo practice, join a group practice, or are undecided. Most trainees participate in 1-5 free tissue transfer a month while 13% participated in 6 or more monthly. 13.3% of respondents' programs have microsurgical fellowships. 2/3 of respondents make use of microsurgical skills courses. The majority (70%) of responders reported experience with free perforator flaps. Most respondents were "confident", or "very confident" performing muscle based free flaps without a more senior surgeon's help. Half reported they were "confident", or "very confident" performing perforator free flaps, but only 1/3rd were "confident" with osseous flaps. Over 80% of respondents plan to use microsurgery in their practices while a similar majority have no plans to complete additional fellowship training.
Most of the recently trained surgeons who responded to our survey thought that they were adequately trained in routine microvascular techniques. Those interested in additional training are not attempting to make up for perceived deficiencies, but are interested in broadening their experience.
