Laparoscopic radical gastrectomy (LRG) has significant technical requirements. Thus, it’s important to build an efficient training system to advance clinical technology and operation guidelines. For a study, researchers sought to assess how well a nationwide advanced training program for LRG (ATP-LRG) was working.

The following was a list of the training’s topics: Detailed method explanations, prevention, and treatment of intraoperative problems, live surgical demonstrations, clinical research theory and practice, comments on trainees’ films, questions, and debates were all included. About 875 trainees were assessed for the retrospective before-and-after research between January 2015 and October 2020. Endpoints included clinical research possibilities (CRP), acceptability of laparoscopic gastrectomy, and general surgical skills (GSS). The investigation was conducted in December 2021.

There was a 70.5% (617/875) response rate. About 99.5% (614/617) of trainees apparently saw benefits from ATP-LRG in their LRG practice. Their GSS (previous vs. subsequent: 16.5±3.7 vs. 20.3±3.1, P<0.001), LGA (4.2±0.9 vs. 4.6±0.7, P<0.001), and CRP (2.6±1.2 vs. 3.2±1.1, P<0.001) all showed substantial improvements. The improvement in GSS was not observed for LGA or CRP, although it was considerably larger for those with professional titles of associate chief surgeons and lower (4.0±3.0 vs. 3.3±2.4, P=0.017). Before training, there was a negative association between the yearly number of procedures and GSS improvement (P=0.001, Pearson’s correlation coefficient: 0.14). Multivariate logistic regression revealed that individuals with professional titles of associate chief surgeons and below were more likely to experience high-GSS improvement (odds ratio [OR]: 1.719, 95% CI: 1.038-2.846, P=0.035); and the annual number of operations performed before training less than 60; (OR: 5.257, 95% CI: 2.573–10.742, P<0.001) were most prone to high-GSS improvement.

The GSS, LGA, and CRP levels of trainees can be improved thanks to the national ATP-LRG. The majority of surgeons who are most likely to increase their GSS via training are those with lesser professional titles and fewer surgeries completed.

Reference: sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1743919122005581

Author