Diego L Lima, MD1, Gustavo L Carvalho, MD, phD2, Phillip P Shadduck, MD3, Gustavo H Belarmino de Goes, Medical Student2, Gustavo A Carvalho, MD2, Raquel N Cordeiro, Medical Student4. 1State Servers Hospital, 2University of Pernambuco, 3North Carolina Specialty Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, and Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, 4Health Faculty of Pernambuco
Objective: To identify the preference among medical students of the following surgical approaches: open surgery, conventional laparoscopy, minilaparoscopy (MINI), Single incision laparoscopic surgery (SILS), natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES), and robotic surgery.
Methods: An online google questionnaire was filled by 111 medical students of different years in medical school. Before answering the questionnaire, they watched an online video showing the different techniques, its advantages and disadvantages. The questionnaire consisted of 18 questions about the hypothetical situation where the participants were going to be submitted to an elective cholecystectomy and they could decide which technique they would prefer. All statistical analysis was performed using the R software program, version 3.3.1. The Chi-squared test was performed for categorical variables where appropriate. A p value < 0.05 was statistically significant.
Results: One hundred and eleven medical students answered the survey. 60 (54.05%) were female and 51 men. Most of the students were between 19 to 22 years old (54.95%). They were in the first four years of medical school. When asked if they would consider NOTES or Single incision even if they know that they are new procedures and with not completely established security standards, 84.68% (94) answered that they wouldn´t consider with no difference between gender (p = 0.920). When asked if only conventional laparoscopy, robotics or MINI were offered, which one they would choose: 85% of women and 62.75% men chose MINI first (p = 0.025). About the factors that they would consider the most important when choosing the surgical technique, they answered safety first (57.66%), followed by the surgeon´s experience with the procedure (29.73%), with no statistically significant result between genders (p = 0.529). When asked if they would consider an open technique even with the other techniques available and compared according to their year in medical school, students closer to finishing medical school would not consider it, with a statistically significant result (p = 0.036). Regarding the most important factors they would consider and compared by year in medical school, safety and experience of the surgeon performed best, with a statistically significant result ( p < 0.05).
Conclusion: Among the available surgical approaches, minilaparoscopy tends to be the preference among women medical students who considered safety the most important aspect. The closer they get to the end to medical school, the less they consider the open technique.
Presented at the SAGES 2017 Annual Meeting in Houston, TX.
Abstract ID: 86671
Program Number: P712
Presentation Session: iPoster Session (Non CME)
Presentation Type: Poster