I was taught that the best piece of equipment you can have, is a surgical assistant. Veterinary nurses, technicians and other vets all make excellent assistants with minimal training. I understand that this can be difficult in general practice. When I was in general practice, I would often try to schedule someone to scrub in just for the most complex part of the procedure. Often this ended up saving everyone’s time and reducing the overall length of anaesthesia (which of course decreases the risk of surgical site infections). I now can't even imagine performing any surgery proficiently, without a surgical assistant.
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