Laparoscopic cholecystectomy using a novel two-port technique for surgical residency training

For the cosmetic benefits of patients, many institutions attempted to perform laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) with a minimum port. It has not yet been discussed whether the number of ports used in LC affect an outcome in a residency training program. We enrolled 101 patients consecutively. Eight freshmen (PGY1) performed 32 operations (13 cases with two-port, 23 cases with four-port). Clinical data were compared with the data by the senior staff. In the freshman group, the duration of surgery was longer in the two-port group than in the four-port group (P = 0.0297); however, there were no complications. In the two-port group, the freshman group took longer than the senior group (P = 0.0266). As for the volume of intraoperative bleeding, there was no statistical significance. Our two-port technique seems to be a feasible, effective, and safe technique for performing LC in the residency training program on selected patients.