[Teaching digestive laparoscopic surgery in France: from education to accreditation?]

The extremely rapid development of laparoscopic surgery since 1989 has given evidence, by the increase in the number of local and vital complications, that teaching of laparoscopic surgery is absolutely necessary, especially technical and practical training. Indeed, laparoscopic surgery is not only a new and different way to attain abdominal organs, but it needs also a complete different acquiring of gestures, which are difficult since the eyes and hands are dissociated due to the videotechnics. The University post-graduate training courses (University Diploma D.U.), which were first organized by the authors in Paris and Nice since 1990, have given the best answers to this challenge: training a large number of surgeons in a minimum of time. In 1994, a new Collège of general visceral and digestive surgeons was founded and the teaching conditions have been modified since. This college courses of general and digestive surgery (D.E.S and D.E.S.C respectively) and during post-graduate formation (F.M.C). After having given recommendations for the program of theoretical and practical teaching of laparoscopic surgery, the authors suggest that this teaching should be integrated in graduate courses of general surgery and in post-graduate courses. These courses represent the best training and are the guarantee of good quality and it would be a big error to suppress them. They should continue under the constant control of the French College of Digestive Surgeons and be supervised by the French National order of medical Doctors.