Simulating Surgical Skills in Animals: Systematic Review, Costs & Acceptance Analyses.

Modern surgery demands high-quality and reproducibility. Due to new working directives, resident duty hours have been restricted and evidence exists that pure on-the-job training provides insufficient exposure. We hypothesize that supplemental simulations in animal models provide a realistic training to augment clinical experiences.

Peripheral nerve transfers change target muscle structure and function.

Selective nerve transfers surgically rewire motor neurons and are used in extremity reconstruction to restore muscle function or to facilitate intuitive prosthetic control. We investigated the neurophysiological effects of rewiring motor axons originating from spinal motor neuron pools into target muscles with lower innervation ratio in a rat model. Following reinnervation, the target muscle's force regenerated almost completely, with the motor unit population increasing to 116% in functional and 172% in histological assessments with subsequently smaller muscle units.

Broadband Prosthetic Interfaces: Combining Nerve Transfers and Implantable Multichannel EMG Technology to Decode Spinal Motor Neuron Activity.

Modern robotic hands/upper limbs may replace multiple degrees of freedom of extremity function. However, their intuitive use requires a high number of control signals, which current man-machine interfaces do not provide. Here, we discuss a broadband control interface that combines targeted muscle reinnervation, implantable multichannel electromyographic sensors, and advanced decoding to address the increasing capabilities of modern robotic limbs.

Multiuse of Disposable Microsurgical Instruments as a Cost-Efficient Alternative for Training and Research.

Microsurgery demands significant preclinical training, often hampered by the high costs of the required microsurgery instruments. We hypothesized that recently available disposable microsurgery instruments provide sufficient quality and significantly reduced costs. In a comparative analysis with standard reusable instruments, participants performed equally with both instrument sets and recommended the disposable instruments for microsurgery training and research applications.

Experimental nerve transfer model in the rat forelimb.

Background: Nerve transfers are a powerful tool in extremity reconstruction, but the neurophysiological effects have not been adequately investigated. As 81 % of nerve injuries and most nerve transfers occur in the upper extremity with its own neurophysiological properties, the standard rat hindlimb model may not be optimal in this paradigm. Here we present an experimental rat forelimb model to investigate nerve transfers.