Society for Hand Surgery

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Experts discuss the latest research in hand and wrist surgery.
Posted On: March 19, 2018
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Conference attendee and graduate student Helene Retrouvey (pictured) works in the laboratory of Dr. Heather Baltzer, Krembil Research Institute.

Conference: Singapore Society for Hand Surgery, January 25–28, 2018, Singapore.

Conference Highlight: The joint Singapore Society for Hand Surgery (SSHS) and American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH) meeting held in Singapore from January 25 to 28 2018 provided an update on the current scientific understanding of the hand and wrist. Further, the meeting engaged attendees through case discussions led by experienced hand surgeons.

Conference Summary: The combined ASSH and SSHS conference was very interesting and merged knowledge of hand surgery from the perspectives of the United States and Singapore. The topics discussed included the management of upper extremity fractures, tendon pathologies, as well as brachial plexus injuries. Expert reviews of hand and wrist pathologies as well as research presentations of novel approaches to hand surgery contributed to improving the knowledge of attendees.

Dr. James Chang gave a very interesting talk on the importance of a multimodal and comprehensive microsurgical curriculum for trainees. Dr. Chang specifically presented the microsurgical curriculum at his institution, discussing the roles of the online curriculum, pre-operative preparation and operative coaching. Dr. Chang highlighted the importance of animal models for pre-operative learning of microsurgery, as well as the necessity of iterative feedback by staff microsurgeons to the trainees to ensure foundational knowledge prior to “real-world” microsurgery.