MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY - THE PEDIATRIC-SURGERY EXPERIENCE

Background: Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has become an important a spect of general surgery. The degree to which pediatric surgeons have incorporated MIS into their practice is not known. Study Design: An MI S survey was sent to all members of the American Pediatric Surgical As sociation. Respondents were separated into two groups: nonperformers a nd performers of MIS. Performers were asked how they mere trained in M IS and the total number and types of minimally invasive procedures the y have performed. Results: Eighty-two percent of surveyed pediatric su rgeons perform MIS. Eighty-seven percent received some or all of their training in a postgraduate course. Two percent received their only tr aining during their general surgery residency. Forty-seven percent of performers reported 50 or fewer total procedures. A wide variety of pr ocedures mere reported, but laparoscopic cholecystectomy (95%) was the procedure most frequently reported. Thoracoscopic procedures (71%) we re also reported at high rates. Conclusions: Most pediatric surgeons i n our survey perform MIS. The high rate of laparoscopic cholecystectom ies reported suggests that the initial MIS experience of pediatric sur geons in our survey is similar to adult general surgeons. The frequenc y, however, of thoracic cases reported indicates that MIS techniques a re being applied to all areas of pediatric surgery. The total minimall y invasive procedure experience of our respondents also suggests that pediatric surgeons are early in their learning curve. (C) 1998 by the American College of Surgeons.