Efficient Soft Tissue Surgery

This 2 day practical and hands on surgical course will emphasize solutions to some of the common surgical challenges that confront the general practitioner. On Day 1, Gastrointestinal Surgery technique and tips will be covered in lecture and performed in a laboratory setting. Does everted intestinal mucosa cause you problems during intestinal surgery? Learn the Gambee suture pattern that will minimize mucosal eversion while performing intestinal biopsy, enterotomy, and intestinal anastomosis. Linear foreign bodies can be challenging and may require multiple enterotomies, in this lab you will learn the catheter technique for foreign body removal that may decrease the need for multiple enterotomies. Efficient and easy gastropexy technique will also be emphasized and performed in the laboratory.

Day 2 of the course will offer solutions to the surgical management of problem wounds caused by trauma or tumor excision. Tension is an “enemy” in surgical wounds. Learn tried and proven and new tension relieving techniques such as pretensioning sutures, progressive intradermal closure, stents and buttress sutures, walking sutures, tie over bandages, and the use of active suction drains. Examples of simple skin reconstruction such as advancement and rotational skin flaps and an introduction to skin grafting will be presented. Axial pattern flaps permitting the movement of large skin flaps will be described.