A Unique Lymphaticovenous Supermicrosurgery Training Curriculum: Reflections on Validation and Competency Thresholds

Area of Science:

• Reconstructive Surgery
• Microsurgery
• Surgical Training

Background:

• Supermicrosurgery is increasingly used across surgical subspecialties.
• Current training lacks standardization and validation for novel techniques.
• Existing simulation programs do not fully address clinical supermicrosurgery challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a competency-based supermicrosurgery training curriculum.
• To validate simulation-based training for lymphatic submillimeter supermicrovascular surgery.
• To ensure safe clinical practice through standardized training.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a Halstedian competency-based curriculum for lymphaticovenous anastomosis (LVA) training.
• Employed step-by-step training using chicken thigh and living rat high-fidelity simulation models.
• Integrated supervised one-to-one clinical training with verified competency outcomes.

Main Results:

• Demonstrated a structured training pathway from simulation to clinical practice.
• Verified clinical competency outcomes following the described curriculum.
• Established a reproducible model for supermicrosurgical training.

Conclusions:

• A competency-based simulation curriculum can effectively train surgeons for lymphaticovenous anastomosis.
• This approach enhances patient safety by ensuring validated clinical competency.
• The described training methodology is applicable to submillimeter supermicrovascular surgery.