Training general surgery residents in paediatric surgery

Children have special needs as surgical patients and are best treated by specialist Paediatric Surgeons, who are confined to large centers especially in developing countries. General Surgeons are thus required to fill in the lacunae. In order to assess whether general surgical trainees receive adequate training for treating children in Pakistan, a cross-sectional survey was conducted at recognized teaching hospitals in Karachi among residents and fellows. Responses were received from 90.4% of surveyed candidates. Only 25% of the respondents were aware of the CPSP guidelines for training with paediatric patients. Nearly half planned to include paediatric patients in their practice. Most respondents believed that training by their programmes was adequate in this regard. In contrast most did not feel confident in operating on paediatric patients. In conclusion current training paradigm does not give General Surgery residents' sufficient confidence in dealing with surgical problems in children.