20 years of microsurgery in Greece

Abstract

The beginning of microsurgery in Greece is rooted at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, NC, where between 1970 and 1974 I was a Clinical and Research Fellow under Dr. James Urbaniak at the Department of Surgery, Division of Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University Medical Center. It is there that I first learned the three “Ms” of microsurgery, the operating microscope, micro-instruments and micro-sutures, for the suturing of small vessels. At that time and even today, Microsurgery has a solid foundation in the laboratory where surgeons have the opportunity to practice microsurgical techniques and solve problems on experimental models. While at Duke, I had the opportunity to work in a laboratory which was located in the VA hospital. There, experimental models included the femoral and brachial arteries of cats and rabbits, the aorta of rats and the radius and radial artery of dogs and reflected a continuous research effort related to the evaluation of various methods for suturing small vessels and to the establishment of a vascularized bone graft model. As a result of this experimental work, two papers were published (Adelaar et al. 1974, Urbaniak et al. 1975). In addition, a number of papers were presented at various meetings and seminars (Soucacos et al. 1975a, Soucacos et al. 1975b, Urbaniak et al. 1977).