The assessment of the Learning Curve of Medical Students in Microsurgery.

• Grant number: 25/08448-8
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: July 01, 2025
• End date: June 30, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Surgery
• Principal Investigator: Flávio Henrique Ferreira Galvão
• Grantee: Michelly Moreira Campos
• Host Institution: Hospital das Clínicas da Faculdade de Medicina da USP (HCFMUSP). Secretaria da Saúde (São Paulo - Estado). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Abstract: Introduction: Microsurgery is an emerging surgical approach that has been gaining relevance in medicine, with various applications such as hand surgery, ophthalmology, andexperimental microsurgery, where it plays a fundamental role in advancing translationalscientific research. Training using surgical gloves is low-cost, accessible, practical, andenables high-quality learning without bioethical concerns. Despite its importance, microsurgery training is typically reserved for residents and specialists, leading to a lack of studies on microsurgical training for medical students.Objective: To evaluate the learning curve of a group of medical students from the Universityof São Paulo in microsurgery.Materials and Methods: The study will be conducted in the microsurgery room of the Medical Investigation Laboratory 37 at HC-FMUSP. A total of 15 medical students from the 1st to the 4th year, without prior experience in microsurgery, will be recruited. The primary materials used will include a bench surgical microscope, surgical gloves, and microsurgical instruments. Students will participate in a practical class with a demonstration of the suturing technique to be performed, followed by individual training sessions twice a week for 30 days. Their performance will be assessed using the Stanford Microsurgery and Resident Training (SMaRT) scale on the 1st and 30th days of the training period. The data will be statistically analyzed using the Student's t-test.