Telementored cholecystectomy

The aim of this study is to report our experience with telementored laparos copic cholecystectomies (TLC). All adult patients with a clinical indicatio n for laparoscopic cholecystectomy were candidates for enrollment into this prospective trial. Our Surgical Telementoring Suite provides real time aud io and video telecommunication to Operating Room 5. Twenty TLC have been pe rformed to date. There have been no major complications and no instance in which telementoring was terminated. Total operative times for TLC have been 90.7+/-21.0 minutes versus 92.2+/-18.4 minutes (p>0.05) for standard lapar oscopic cholecystectomies with mentors physically present in the Operating Room. We conclude that telementoring is a safe and effective method for tea ching the techniques of laparoscopic cholecystectomy. There is no appreciab le decrement in patient outcome or in the efficiency of the operation. Disclaimer: the views expressed in this manuscript are those of the authors and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of th e Army, Department of Defense, or the U.S. Government.