Week 5: If it Looks Uncomfortable, There is Probably a Better Way to do it

 This week Dr. Spector did not have any surgeries and he was out of town on Thursday and Friday, so sadly I was not able to go into the clinic either. I spent a big portion of my time continuing to edit a supplement application for a grant in Dr. Yadong Wang’s lab.

On Thursday, however, I was able to go into lab and watch the Senior Research Specialist, Alice, train a medical resident in microsurgery. He was performing a non-survival surgery using 10/0 sutures on the left and right carotid arteries and on the femoral arteries. In one instance, he connected a hole in the artery to another vessel with a beveled edge, which worked to reverse the flow of blood, so it flowed from the legs to the heart. It was very interesting to watch the resident unclamp the vessel because the coloring would change from half red and half purple to all purple once the arterial flow was blocked. One thing I saw that stuck out to me was that they used little blue and green rubber sheets placed under the artery to better visualize the surgery. The color choice makes it much easier on the surgeons’ eyes after performing microsurgeries for a long period of time. This piece of rubber also had a textured surface which makes it easier to pick up a fallen suture. I also thought it was interesting to see a non-survival surgery because it did not require the same elements of sterility as the survival surgeries I witnessed back in Ithaca. I also learned that to better control hand tremors when performing surgery, you want to get a point of leverage as close to the suture as possible. So, if your arms are sticking straight out your closest point of leverage would be your shoulder, whereas if you just rotated your hand and dropped your pinky, the point of leverage would become your pinky finger. I also wanted to attach a photo of my surgical glove microsurgery practice from last week.

- Halle