Techniques of Microsurgical Vascular Anastomoses in Experimental Microsurgery

Abstract

After the introduction of microvascular suture techniques in animals as small as rats by Fisher and Lee in 1961 (Fisher et al. 1962; Lee and Fisher 1961), nearly all organ transplantation techniques were developed within the following 15 years, most of them pioneered by Lee [for an overview see Thiede (1977)]. In addition to a wealth of ideas and inexhaustible patience on the part of the respective surgeons, however, the following factors had to coincide before microsurgical techniques for experimental rat surgery could be established worldwide:

• 1. The availability of magnifying glasses with up to 6-fold magnification and of operating microscopes with up to 30-fold magnification

• 2. The development of suitable and precise instruments made, e.g., of titanium

• 3. The industrial production of thin monofile sutures

• 4. The breeding of laboratory rats, especially inbred rat strains