Search

Background: Microsurgery is most commonly used in the anastomosis of vessels, flap harvesting, lymphedema, and nerve reconstruction, among others. During the 1920s the first microscope was invented by Nylen and Holmgren, quickly becoming the gold standard for microsurgery. However, technological advances have come forth in the form of exoscopes., Methods: A search for full-text articles where using an exoscope was compared with a traditional operating microscope was conducted on the databases PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Embase. The following terms were used to guide our search: Microscope AND exoscope AND plastic surgery; Microscope AND exoscope AND microvascular surgery., Results: Our search yielded 69 studies, of which 12 were included. Five exoscope systems were used by the authors. All studies reported the exoscope as a valid alternative to the standard operating microscope. The exoscope was reported as non-inferior to the operating microscope. Although some studies reported lower quality of image, this did not seem to influence the outcome of surgeries. Newer models may have bridged the gap between the operating microscope's image quality and the exoscope. Superior ergonomics was always reported among the included studies., Conclusion: Based on our search, we conclude that the exoscope is a safe and valid alternative to the operating microscope in plastic surgery. As newer models are now commercially available, these have overcome difficulties in image quality and zoom capabilities, responsible for the main drawbacks of the first exoscope systems., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest None declared., (Copyright © 2023 British Association of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Background: Most of a surgeon's office time is dedicated to patient education, preventing an appropriate patient-physician relationship. Telephone-accessed artificial intelligent virtual assistants (AIVAs) that simulate a human conversation and answer preoperative frequently asked questions (FAQs) can be effective solutions to this matter. An AIVA capable of answering preoperative plastic surgery-related FAQs has previously been described by the authors., Objectives: The aim of this paper was to determine patients' perception and satisfaction with an AIVA., Methods: Twenty-six adult patients from a plastic surgery service answered a 3-part survey consisting of: (1) an evaluation of the answers' correctness, (2) their agreement with the feasibility, usefulness, and future uses of the AIVA, and (3) a section on comments. The first part made it possible to measure the system's accuracy, and the second to evaluate perception and satisfaction. The data were analyzed with Microsoft Excel 2010 (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA)., Results: The AIVA correctly answered the patients' questions 98.5% of the time, and the topic with the lowest accuracy was "nausea." Additionally, 88% of patients agreed with the statements of the second part of the survey. Thus, the patients' perception was positive and overall satisfaction with the AIVA was high. Patients agreed the least with using the AIVA to select their surgical procedure. The comments provided improvement areas for subsequent stages of the project., Conclusions: The results show that patients were satisfied and expressed a positive experience with using the AIVA to answer plastic surgery FAQs before surgery. The system is also highly accurate., (© The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Aesthetic Society. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)