Which surgeons have the best hands?

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  • Neurosurgery

    Votes: 60 30.3%

  • Plastics

    Votes: 28 14.1%

  • ENT

    Votes: 8 4.0%

  • Urology

    Votes: 5 2.5%

  • Ortho

    Votes: 20 10.1%

  • Vascular

    Votes: 14 7.1%

  • Ophtho

    Votes: 26 13.1%

  • Congenital heart

    Votes: 28 14.1%

  • Other

    Votes: 9 4.5%
  • Total voters
    198
Frogger27

Frogger27

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I know that this varies on the specific operation being done, but in general which surgical specialty takes the best fine motor skills/hand dexterity?

Can rank them or discuss (also can include specific subspecialties within):
ENT
Neurosurgery
Plastics
Ophtho
Urology
Vascular
Urology
General surgery subspecialties
Etc
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Last edited:
Neurosurg OFC , it's probably one of the few places where the slightest hand shake will cripple the patient.
 
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Edited above post to add neurosurgery.. I knew I forgot one!

@mimelim is that some sarcasm I sense?
 
I would think Optho. I wouldn't want any trembling hands in my eye
 
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mimelim said:
Ortho and it isn't even close.
Click to expand...

This guy might beg to differ

myron-rolle.jpg
 
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Pretty sure vascular tissue is as delicate as it gets. A pretty big chunk of NSG is just gonna be doing vascular stuff in the brain.

NSG with vascular as a close second. Maybe ophtho after that. Everything else is a wash.
 
Last edited:
So right now I've picked up something like this:

Ortho< ?????? Optho<vascular=neurosurgery

Where do ent, urology, plastics and others fall on this list?
 
Frogger27 said:
So right now I've picked up something like this:

Ortho< ?????? Optho<vascular=neurosurgery

Where do ent, urology, plastics and others fall on this list?
Click to expand...
They all have their subtleties. Not really sure what utility it would be to rank them.
Ent does a lot of stuff endoscopically, operating in very tight spaces. Plus the head and neck guys do free flaps (microvascular revonstructions) would take a steady hand, I would imagine.
Urology also does some stuff endoscopically and also robotically.
Plastics does flaps as well.
Not sure about CT, colorectal, hepatobiliary or transplant surgery.

Overall they all take a steady hand. I definitely wouldn't base any decisions off of which one requires the "best" hands.
 
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FindMeOnTheLinks said:
They all have their subtleties. Not really sure what utility it would be to rank them.
Ent does a lot of stuff endoscopically, operating in very tight spaces. Plus the head and neck guys do free flaps (microvascular revonstructions) would take a steady hand, I would imagine.
Urology also does some stuff endoscopically and also robotically.
Plastics does flaps as well.
Not sure about CT, colorectal, hepatobiliary or transplant surgery.

Overall they all take a steady hand. I definitely wouldn't base any decisions off of which one requires the "best" hands.
Click to expand...

Of course.. I'm just a lowly incoming M1, I'm not even thinking about a field. this question was out of pure curiosity.
 
Congenital Heart Surgery.

End thread.
 
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We all have different skills and all require fine dexterity in different ways. Comparing apples and oranges. Even in ortho, there are times when we need to drill through bone and not go more than a few mm past it, because blood vessels are on the other side, and hitting a big blood vessel in the pelvis can kill a patient in a few minutes.
 
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Apparently nobody has seen Dr. Strange remove a bullet from someone's brain without stealth navigation....

Congenital heart surgery.
 
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Surgeons don't have the best hands at all. We IM docs do. Our fingers dance across the keyboard, each stroke a clarion call for reimbursement that will never come. It's both beautiful and tragic.
 
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Neurosurgery and ENT. High risk requires high skill.

Has anyone seen Dr. Miami just man-handling his patients' during his operations? Plastic doesn't seem like it needs the precision of Neuro or ENT.
 
SouthernSurgeon said:
Efficiency, comfort with anatomy, decision making, these all matter far far more than "magic" hands.
Click to expand...

My wife would say I have all these qualities, AND magic hands. A few of the hot OR nurses would say the same :banana:











....jk
 
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SouthernSurgeon said:
It's really not that important.

I know a breast surgeon who gets the most consistently amazingly thin flaps you'll ever see. Her hands are amazing.

I know a vascular surgeon with a ridiculous intention tremor who drinks too much coffee and he's a complete boss in the OR.

Efficiency, comfort with anatomy, decision making, these all matter far far more than "magic" hands.
Click to expand...

zKokzIAh.jpg
 
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Within neurosurgery it differs as well. Spine guy vs skull base = earth and sky.
 
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Another vote for neurosurgery, scrub in on a skull base/basilar artery meningioma resection. Yeah.
 
for the record I'm not going into vascular, but damn the surgeons were very good. Seeing them stitch grafts to tiny vessels was nuts.

I knew i didn't have the hands for it.
 
Instead of asking which surgeons have the best hands, it may have been more useful to ask which surgical procedure requires the steadiest hands.

But to answer the question - Ophthalmology. And in my opinion, it's not even close. Neurosurgery, Ortho, and Vascular might have long surgeries, but the delicacy required in Ophthalmology might be unrivaled.

Check out the details regarding a partial thickness corneal transplant called a DMEK (descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty) in which the descemet membrane and endothelial layer of the patient's cornea (10-15 microns thick) is replaced by a donor graft.

Descemet Membrane Endothelial Keratoplasty (DMEK)
 
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sab3156 said:
Instead of asking which surgeons have the best hands, it may have been more useful to ask which surgical procedure requires the steadiest hands.
Click to expand...

But it's still a terrible question. You should do what you like, and then do it to the best of your technical ability. There are incredibly challenging operations in all surgical specialties, and doing even a routine case flawlessly is probably beyond most people's ability. Caring about which surgical specialty requires the "perfect hands" is one of the most premed things I've seen on allo (oops I mean whatever the new name is) in a while.
 
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NPs holistic hands trump all of you any day of the week
 
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Obviously it's OB-GYNs. Who wouldn't want a giant hysterectomy scar
 
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The ones who are women. Because their hands are the softest :kiss:
 
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