Blurred image of surgical suite

Surgery Training

SURGERY TRAINING 

IACUC Surgeon Pre and Post Approval Requirements 

Pre-approval Aseptic Survival Surgery in Rodents, Birds, and Aquatics Lecture 

The IACUC requires all researchers performing surgery on any vertebrate animal to be appropriately trained. The required training includes an aseptic surgery course which must be completed prior to IACUC approval.  

For small animal surgeons: registration for the training course is via Brainier, Emory’s electronic learning platform. Please search for “DAR SOM Aseptic Survival Surgery in Rodents, Birds, and Aquatics” and register for a class. Classes are held twice per month. 

For large animal surgeons: the DAR SOM Large Animal Aseptic Survival Surgery Lecture is held on an ad hoc basis. Please contact dartrn@emory.edu to request this class. 

If you will be working with species from both groups, you are required to complete both courses. 

Post-approval Survival Surgery Proficiency Assessment  

Researchers must also pass a surgical proficiency assessment by a DAR veterinarian or surgical training coordinator. During this assessment surgeons are observed performing their surgery and assessed for compliance with IACUC animal use policies and their IACUC approved protocol. 

The surgical proficiency assessment must be passed by each person on an IACUC protocol assigned the role of “surgeon”. Completion of this assessment is recommended before starting survival surgeries; however, IACUC policy stipulates that it must be scheduled within 30 days of starting any survival procedures.  

Surgical proficiency assessment scheduling requests can be submitted via the DAR training request form: https://som.qualtrics.emory.edu/jfe/form/SV_3Vmz7O5itBnvZ5Q  

General surgical techniques training  

In-person surgical training sessions we offer include: 

  • Rodent anesthesia and monitoring 
  • Aseptic technique and surgical set up 
  • Basic rodent surgery training 
  • Wound closure training  

Please request surgical training via the DAR training request form: https://som.qualtrics.emory.edu/jfe/form/SV_3Vmz7O5itBnvZ5Q