Pediatric radiology fellows' experience with intussusception reduction

Intussusception reduction allows young children to avoid surgery. However, graduating residents have had relatively little training in intussusception reduction and, for the most part, consider themselves ill-prepared to perform this procedure.

The goal of this study was to assess the extent of training in intussusception reduction during one year of a pediatric radiology fellowship and to determine whether graduating fellows consider themselves adequately trained in this technique.

Pediatric radiology fellows were surveyed during June 2010 and asked to characterize their fellowship, to indicate the number of intussusception reductions performed (both the total number and those performed with faculty oversight but without active faculty involvement), and to assess the adequacy of their training.

There were 31 responses, representing almost 1/3 of current fellows. Pediatric radiology fellows perform on average 6.9 reductions, 3.8 of which are with faculty oversight but without active faculty involvement. Ninety percent consider themselves well-trained in the technique, whereas 10% are uncertain (none consider their training inadequate).

Almost all pediatric radiology fellows consider their training in intussusception reduction to be adequate.