Abstract
The advent of supermicrosurgery, which allows the anastomosis and dissection of small-caliber
vessels ranging from 0.5 to 0.8 mm in diameter, has led to the development of new
reconstructive operations. Lymphaticovenous anastomosis, fingertip replantation and
perforator flap surgery all require the supermicrosurgical techniques. In this paper,
a rat model is described for the training of anastomosis of submillimeter vessels.
Spraque-Dawley rats with the weight of 300 to 500 g were used as the training models.
The gender, weight and size of the femoral vessels of 20 rats were recorded. The segment
of the femoral vessel which was lying on the ventral muscle group of the hind limb
and distal to the origin of the superficial inferior epigastric vessels was used for
the practice of microvascular anastomosis. In this study, there were 13 male and 7
female rats. The mean weight of the 20 rats was 395.6 g. The mean diameters of the
femoral artery and femoral vein were 0.54 mm and 0.56 mm respectively. The consistent
size and anatomy of the femoral vessel make it a suitable training model for microvascular
anastomosis of submillimeter vessels.
Keywords
Supermicrosurgery - Submillimeter - Microvascular - Anastomosis - Training - Animal
- Rat - Model
