Photo By Staff Sgt. Adriana Barrientos | A makeshift alternative to vessel loops, created from sterile surgical gloves, rests...... read more read more
GEORGETOWN, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines – Imagine prepping for a complex surgery, only to discover a crucial piece of equipment is missing – thousands of miles from home. That's the challenge the U.S. Air Force operating room team faced during a recent medical mission to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. They knew they needed a readily available, sterile, and flexible material.
The solution? Common surgical gloves.
Tasked with providing vital arteriovenous (AV) fistula surgeries for dialysis patients during the Lesser Antilles Medical Assistance Team (LAMAT) 2025 mission, Lt. Col. Devin Watson, 349th Medical Squadron vascular surgeon, and Staff Sgt. Jamie Buama, a 349th MDS surgical technologist, found themselves staring at a critical shortage: vessel loops. These small, elastic bands are essential for safely occluding blood vessels during these delicate procedures.
Dialysis patients need a reliable access point where blood can be safely and efficiently removed and returned during treatment. Surgeons create an AV fistula, which connects a vein and artery, making the vein stronger and suitable for frequent needle insertions.
“Vessel loops are used to block and occlude the blood vessels, and if you don’t have those you can’t do the surgery,” said Watson. “They’re a critical instrument to vascular surgery.”
Undeterred, Watson and Buama tapped into their ingenuity. Together, the surgical team brainstormed and sourced from readily available material to find alternatives. After some experimentation, they found that size 6.5 sterile gloves, carefully snipped and stretched, provided the perfect substitute.
“We were expecting a vascular surgery set, and all of our supplies,” said Buama. “Dr. Watson pointed out that we were missing vessel loops during the inventory of equipment. We both improvised and got creative with solutions to the challenges presented. That’s when we thought about the gloves.”
With limited equipment on hand, the team quickly realized they would need to get resourceful.
“We only found three vessel loops on the entire island, so there was a lot of experimenting to make [the surgeries] happen,” said Buama. “We tried all sizes of the bio gel sterile glove to replicate the vessel loops and stuck with the six and a half size. We snipped the ends [of the glove] and stretched it out to use for surgery.”
The solution ensured continuity of care for their patients, performing 24 vascular surgeries over the course of two weeks.
Their impact extended far beyond the operating room. The duo embraced the opportunity to train and collaborate with local scrub nurses and surgeons, sharing their expertise and fostering a spirit of teamwork.
“We’re providing a huge service to this country, and they’re providing a huge opportunity for us to be able to think outside the box and work through problems in a safe, stable environment,” said Watson.
This engagement provided an opportunity for mutual learning and strengthened the interoperability between U.S. and Saint Vincent medical professionals.
“I wanted to learn how they did surgeries and come up with a plan to collaborate together using limited supplies,” said Buama. “This was a first for many of the scrub nurses, including myself, and they were excited and willing to learn.”
The LAMAT 25 mission deploys medical teams to partner with local medical practitioners, enhancing medical readiness while providing critical healthcare services to the region.
For the surgical team from the 349th MDS, the mission was a powerful reminder that sometimes, the most innovative solutions are found in the most unexpected places.
| Date Taken: | 03.17.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.24.2025 20:11 |
| Story ID: | 493631 |
| Location: | VC |
| Web Views: | 56 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, LAMAT 25: Surgical Team Crafts Creative Solutions in the OR, by SSgt Adriana Barrientos, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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