The evolution of surgical endoscopic training. Meeting the American Board of Surgery requirements

The American Board of Surgery requires that applicants become familiar with gastrointestinal endoscopy. This report retrospectively reviews Akron City Hospital's ten-year experience in surgical endoscopic training. In July, 1982, a two-month endoscopy rotation was established for fourth-year surgical residents. The average number of endoscopies performed by the resident as surgeon increased from 49.0 in 1984-85, to 167.7 in 1988-89. The percentage of endoscopies performed as surgeon increased from 46.4 per cent to 87.3 per cent during the same period. These increases are coincident with the addition of two trained surgical endoscopists to the faculty. This improvement in resident experience is attributed to an increase in endoscopies performed by faculty surgeons (634 procedures in 1988-89 vs. 291 procedures in 1984-85), and to an increase in percentage of procedures performed as surgeon with faculty gastroenterologists. Two of the three residents graduating in the final year of the study met the SAGES guidelines for upper GI endoscopy and colonoscopy. Based upon this ten-year experience, we recommend that surgical residencies desiring to develop endoscopic training recruit trained surgical endoscopists and develop a collaborative relationship between medical and surgical faculty.