Impact of education with authorized technical experts on colorectal laparoscopic skills

Laparoscopic skills training is becoming the standard for educating surgical residents. Because of the specific procedure which differs from that of open surgery, it is imperative to establish a unique training system to promote efficiency of learning laparoscopic skills. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of learning laparoscopic skills with or without authorized experts of JSES.

Among 71 patients who underwent laparoscopic colectomy from 2004 to 2009, 30 patients who underwent operation in introduction era without a technical expert (2004-2006), 17 patients who underwent operation in late period of introduction era without a technical expert (2006-2008), 12 patients who underwent operation by resident with technical expert (2008-2009) and 12 patients who underwent operation by technical expert, were investigated. Operative time, amount of blood loss, intra- and post-operative complications and conversion to open surgery were investigated.

Operative time: 477:333:262:220 minutes (early period:late period:resident:expert), amount of blood loss: 494:73:21:20mL and complications: ileus: 0:1:0:0, leakage: 1:1:3:0, neurological disturbance: 2:1:0:0.

Instruction by authorized technical experts of JSES is helpful to avoid pitfalls which are not seen in open surgery without an expert.