RESIDENT TRAINING IN PAEDIATRIC MINIMAL ACCESS SURGERY A TERTIARY CARE CENTRE EXPERIENCE

Paediatric minimal access surgery has progressed significantly since its inception in early 90s. More and more paediatric surgery procedures are being done using minimal access techniques and hence registrar training in MAS has become an integral part of residency training. We wished to see if senior residents in our institute were getting satisfactory exposure and a step wise progress in training in MAS. From the data analysis , nearly 60 of MAS procedures in 2013 and 65 of MAS procedures in 2014 were performed by Senior registrars. We observed that there was a step wise progression with first year residents performing basic laparoscopic procedures and third year residents performing moderately difficult and advanced procedures. Consultants, once acquainted themselves with basic MAS procedures, proceeded to perform more complex procedures and were willing to train registrars. Consultants helped ( assisted mentored) registrars do 64.65 of MAS procedures in 2014 against 59.11 in 2013. Our study covering two years shows a structured pattern of minimal access procedures being performed by paediatric surgical trainees and reassuring trends in the complexity of procedures done by them.