Calman, venous surgery and the vascular trainee

Background: Surgical training in Great Britain is undergoing inevitable cha nges to accommodate the processes of Higher Surgical Training. Junior surge ons have long argued that their training experiences have been haphazard or without satisfactory supervision. With the advent of changes following the Calman Report and the implementation of the Vascular Surgical Society reco mmendations, we have audited the venous surgical experience of vascular tra inees in Great Britain. Methods and Results: Questionnaires were sent to 90 vascular surgical trainees achieving an overall 76.7% response rate (n=69) . Just under half of the trainees had spent more than il months on a pure v ascular firm. The majority of trainees had received formal training in saph eno-femoral junction ligation and sapheno-popliteal junction ligation, Howe ver, several areas of training were deemed insufficient at both the junior and senior trainee levels. Very. few trainees gain instruction on deep veno us surgery and the techniques of microsclerotherapy. Conclusions: Despite t he participation of trainees in specialised vascular units, current trainin g schedules fail to cover the field of venous surgery adequately. Training by vascular specialists needs greater focus and should be tailored to the t rainee's experience on entry to their firm.