• Archives of Plastic Surgery
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• v.51 no.2
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• pp.251-257
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• 2024

Background Plastic surgery has developed to benefit in a variety of challenging areas formerly handled by other disciplines. Medical students do not have a clear picture of plastic surgery as a career due to lacking scope, clinical practice, and understanding of plastic surgery as a clinical area of expertise, including general practitioners, nursing staff, medical trainees, and the general public, and misconceptions about the extent of reconstructive and plastic surgery. Methods A cross-sectional observational study was conducted on Kuwait University Medical students (2nd-7th Years) over a period of 1 month. A questionnaire and a consent form were provided to eligible students. The inclusion criteria were Kuwait University Medical students from 2nd to 7th Years with signed consent form. The response was collected via email sent in coordination with the Vice Dean of Student Affairs in the Faculty of Medicine. Using statistical package for the social sciences, responses were statistically analyzed. Pearson's chi-square test was used to calculate p-values, where p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results A total of 244 eligible medical students, 121 males and 123 females, were included in the study, with a mean age of 21 (±2) years. Similarly, 126 (51.6%) were preclinical students (2nd-4th-year students), while 118 (48.4%) were clinical students (5th-7th-year students). About 79.8% of medical students believed that plastic surgery plays an essential role in trauma management, whereas 9.2% did not consider plastic surgery significant for trauma management. This study found that only 15.5% of medical students were interested in enrolling in plastic surgery residency after graduation, while 47.1% of students did not consider plastic surgery residency after graduation. However, 37.4% were uncertain. The two most driving factors in deciding on plastic surgery residency were expected income (61.8%) and lifestyle (14.3%). Conclusion Improving medical students' education quality can enhance their perception and awareness of plastic surgery. Students should be taught the broader scope of plastic surgery. The inclusion of formal training during undergraduation is the essence of time and should be added to or improved during plastic surgery rotations with more emphasis on reconstructive and hand/peripheral nerve surgery. Student-led interest groups can be a useful tool for educating students about their specialty.

• Transactions of the KSME C: Technology and Education
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.167-177
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• 2013

The use of mechanical anastomosis coupler instead of sutures has been increasing in microvascular anastomosis surgery. However, non-biodegradable anastomosis coupler has problems such as not only inflammatory reaction but also remaining permanently in operation wound. Therefore, we fabricated biodegradable anastomosis coupler using injection molding process to overcome the limitation of non-biodegradable anastomosis coupler. In various injection molding process conditions, the shrinkage was calculated with different cylinder temperatures and injection molding pressures and anastomotic strength was measured. As a result, changes in shrinkage hole part larger than the pin part. In addition, the shrinkage in the cylinder at higher temperatures increase. However, the higher the injection pressure, shrinkage tends to decrease, respectively. In-vitro degradation behavior of PCL anastomotic coupler evaluated for 12 weeks, water uptake was increased and molecular weight was accompanied by a reduction in mass of the biological degradation and reduction of anastomotic strength was confirmed. However, decreased levels of anastomotic strength enough to exceed the requirements of preclinical surgery, PCL microvascular anastomosis coupler suitable candidate materials that could identify.