[Teaching experience of laparoscopic cholecystectomy: a report from Beijing]

I arrived at Beijing on August 13, 1995, having been appointed to a tutor for laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LSC) in the Sino-Japanese Friendship Hospital therein by the Japan International Cooperation Agency. This hospital was inaugurated in 1984 and accommodates up to 1,300 in patients. In the history of surgery, nevertheless, the laparoscopic method is revolutionary in that many doctors share the operative field, make judgments, and perform procedures, all of which are open to observers. These features, however, attest the Chinese philosophy of the surgeons and the Asian idea to respect the elderly in the traditional Chinese clinic. We therefore attempted to create a team for endoscopic surgery by junior surgeons and sought cooperation to anesthesiologists and nurses in the operating room. On August 21, 1995. I attended the first operation as an endoscopist teaching the mini-laparotomy method at the placement of a trocar. Even in the introductory period of LSC, we had to treat patients immediately after gallstone attack. Thus I detailed the precautions at dissecting the triangle of Calot. We found the EndoflexTM retractor of great use in those patients with severe adhesion. While paying respect for their dignity, we told the necessity of teamwork where one has to give way sometimes for the establishment of this new type of operative style. A total of eight patients underwent LSC by the time I left China on September 10, 1995. We wish that this seed of laparoscopic surgery would proliferate in this young hospital located, however, in the capital of a country with eternal history.