The Spanish surgeon, one of the invited foreign speakers, addressed the latest techniques in reconstructive microsurgery and replantation.
The Moscone Center of San Francisco (USA) hosted last week the 72nd edition of the annual meeting of the American Society for Surgery of the Hand (ASSH). From September 7 to 9, the leading American physicians in diagnosis, treatment and surgery of the upper limb evaluated the state of the art and the newest advances in their field.
As main items of his participation, Dr. Piñal intervened in the course on acute trauma and best surgical practices in cases of mutilated hand (‘Acute Trauma – Getting the Most from a Mutilated Hand’), dealing with the various techniques of salvage and preservation of the thumb, as well as its anatomical-functional replacement; together with the approach of irreparable injuries in the metacarpophalangeal (MCP) and proximal interphalangeal (PIP) joints by arthroplasty or joint replacement.
On the other hand, he also took part in the activity dedicated to the latest trends in replantation surgery (‘Trends in Replantation Surgery: Success, Failure and Future Directions’). During this course, the faculty and moderators discussed basic replantation strategies by level of amputation and their surgical results, as well as analyze the most advanced developments such as free tissue transfer and allotransplantation (ie transfer from a donor) for secondary reconstruction. In this case, the Spanish surgeon presented his contributions to the reconstructive surgery of the mutilated hand.
The mission of the ASSH is to advance the science and practice of hand and upper extremity surgery through education, research and advocacy on behalf of patients and practitioners.
Main image: San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin Headlands -image cropped from the original- by Bernard Gagnon (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons.