[Medium term results on introducing colorrectal laparoscopic surgery into clinical practice after having an intensive...

Endoscopic surgery has characteristics that increase the difficulties of learning. Five years ago, an intensive colorectal laparoscopic surgery course was designed to offer training in the technical bases of this type of surgery. The aim of this article is to determine the impact of the colorectal surgery course on clinical practice, and to investigate the factors that limit its applicability and the training preferences of the surgeons.

Twenty-two courses of four days duration, with 36 hours of lessons (4 in seminar form and 32 in the surgery), and with 7 trainees, were held between June 2005 and December 2010. A survey was sent out in December 2010 to assess the impact of the course on the colorectal laparoscopic surgery activity of the trainee, to find out the difficulties encountered in its application, and to evaluate the training expectations in endoscopic surgery in this group of surgeons.

The questionnaire was sent to 148 surgeons, with 74 (50%) responses received. The mean period after the course was 26.5 (2-60) months. A monthly increase of more than 5 cases was observed in 70% of the centres. The course enabled them to consolidate the activity in local hospitals, while in university and general hospitals it served to re-launch an initial experience. Among the obstacles that made it difficult to introduce were care load and the availability of a surgeon, particularly in general and university hospitals (P=.001), and in local hospitals it was the availability of patients. The majority of surgeons (70%) believed that specific training was required, preferring a short period in a hospital with experience.

An intensive course on colorectal laparoscopic surgery enabled the activity to be consolidated or increased in this area. Training in colorectal laparoscopic surgery requires additional teaching efforts, which are currently unstructured.