Stories
AIIMS Achieves Medical Marvel: 0.3mm Veins Repaired with Hair-Thin Sutures
- •AIIMS Delhi's Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery has launched super microsurgery for organs not visible to the naked eye.
- •This advanced technique targets blood vessels as thin as 0.3 to 0.5 mm, unlike conventional microsurgery.
- •The procedure uses sutures 3 to 5 times thinner than a single strand of hair and powerful surgical microscopes.
- •A recent workshop at AIIMS featured six surgeries, including lymphatic super microsurgery for filariasis and breast cancer-related swelling.
- •AIIMS is adopting cutting-edge techniques like ICG mapping and high-frequency ultrasound mapping to become a global leader in super microsurgical reconstruction.
Key Questions Answered
Super microsurgery is an advanced medical technique initiated by the Department of Burn and Plastic Surgery at AIIMS New Delhi to operate on tiny vessels measuring between 0.3 to 0.5 mm. This procedure utilizes specialized surgical microscopes, fine instruments, and sutures that are 3 to 5 times thinner than a human hair to join blood vessels that are normally invisible to the naked eye.
The AIIMS workshop featured prominent international and national specialists, including world-renowned super microsurgery and lymphatic reconstruction expert Professor Jun Pio (J.P.) Hong from South Korea. Other notable participating doctors included Dr. Hari Venkataramani from Ganga Hospital in Coimbatore and Dr. Samreen Jaffer from Aster Hospital in Kasargod.
The workshop featured six surgeries, including lymphatic super microsurgery for filariasis, treatment for arm swelling after breast cancer, and super microsurgical reconstruction of non-healing diabetic foot ulcers using a very thin skin flap. Additionally, brand-new techniques not yet widely available in Indian hospitals were demonstrated, such as Indocyanine Green (ICG) infrared mapping and high-frequency ultrasound mapping.
