The Pin Cushion Needle Angle Exercise

1.      Fore-hand exercises

A great way to practice reloading needles only using your geralds. Start off with fore-hand sutures in line. Same as you would be doing to over sew a chimney graft from peripheral cannulation or AASV ligation.  

2.      Back-hand exercises

Now let’s focus on our back-hand. It is important to make sure to go in perpendicular to the eye of the needle and follow the curvature of the needle. Being comfortable with these will certainly get you brownie points!

3.      Fore-hand alternating with Back-hand

Same set up as before but now taking turns between fore-hand and back-hand.

1.      Anastomosis needle angle

During anastomosis of a vessel, may it be the aorta or the coronary artery, you have to put both fore-hand and back-hand throws to use! If you want to step up to the next level, time yourself making sure you can get faster each time. Start off with C-1 needle and progress to BV-1. Lastly you can set up the eye of the needle to different direction in order to challenge you to be constantly changing your needle.

Dr. Thais Faggion Vinholo is a cardiothoracic surgery resident at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

The opinions expressed in the article are not affiliated with any institution, company or product. The article should not be interpreted as medical advice.

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