The Visits

The “The British Microsurgical Travellers Club” made trips to six units in five countries.

Each host organised a programme of lectures and operative demonstrations in theatre. They learnt more about microsurgical free tissue transfer for soft tissue cover of open lower limb fractures from Marco Godina in Lubijana. Edgar Biemer in Munich was an early pioneer in finger and limb replantation, and Hans Anderl in Innsbruck had experience with cross facial nerve transfer for the treatment of facial nerve palsy.

On the visit to Munich, the visitors even made a side trip to Schaffhausen near Lake Constance (Bodensee) home to the instrument works of Messers Springler and Tritt. “S&T” were pioneers in the development of both microsurgical instruments and sutures, thereby making microsurgery a routinely practical technique.

Image to right of Bill Reid, Martyn Webster, and Edgar Biemer