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Medics are to undergo cutting edge specialist training in reconstructive head and neck surgery in a unique course taking place in Liverpool.

Jointly run by the Liverpool Head and Neck Centre (LHNC) and the Human Anatomy Resource Centre (HARC), 12 delegates will take part in the training at the University of Liverpool (UoL) from 7th December.

The Liverpool Advanced Head and Neck Reconstruction Course will take place over three days and will involve virtual surgical planning technologies and techniques usually only available in a clinical environment.

It is thought to be the first course of its type and will give the already highly skilled surgical trainees and consultants on the course a unique opportunity to enhance their surgical skills.

Mr Andrew Schache, Head and Neck Surgeon and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery specialty lead for the UoL School of Medicine, said: “The surgical techniques are complex and difficult to achieve and learn without training courses.

“However, we have built an additional unique element that allows each of the delegates on the course to undertake virtual surgical planning the like of which are otherwise only available in the clinical environment of specialist units.

“Each delegate will be able to make virtual surgical plans for simulated free tissue transfer surgical procedures for head and neck reconstruction using a resource of cadavers with each one having been through a full body CT scan – a training component not achieved on this scale previously.

“The imaging data can then be manipulated virtually to generate patient-specific surgical cutting guides, templates, and reconstruction plates simulating completely all elements of the most complex of surgical procedures.

“No other centre internationally has been able to deliver this sort of bespoke surgical training and it speaks to the unique strengths of HARC, LHNC and our industrial partners, Stryker and 3D Systems.”

The Liverpool Head and Neck Centre combines internationally recognised clinical and research strengths to deliver research-led improvements in the quality and safety of patient care locally, nationally and internationally. LHNC is a constituent centre of the University of Liverpool Cancer Research Institute.

The Human Anatomy Resource Centre at UoL is a dedicated facility for the teaching of human anatomy over a range of undergraduate curricula, alongside offering postgraduate and continued professional development courses.