Dr. K goes Laparoscopic (Nick)

[Guest guest]

> Even though he just began to perform the lap

> DS this month, he has lap experience and has

> done bowel resections in his residency. If

> there is any worry about a learning curve,

> that curve should be quite short in his case.

All surgeons today are trained in lap surgery, and all are required

to have " significant " surgical experience in the entire thoracic

cavity -- both are REQUIRED for board certification. According to

the American Board of Surgery,

" The General Surgeon must be capable of employing

endoscopic techniques, particularly proctosigmoidoscopy,

colonoscopy, esophagogastroduodenoscopy, laparoscopy... "

" Additionally, the General Surgeon is expected to have

had significant preoperative, operative and postoperative

experience in pediatric, plastic, general thoracic and

transplant surgery during training. "

This is only a slight bit of what EVERY surgeon is EXPECTED to know

how to do when s/he finishes his/her residency. For full

information, see:

<http://www.absurgery.org/ab00013.html>

The learning curve for the lap DS, which I believe M said was

something around 70 procedures, ASSUMES experience in lap surgery and

a lot of other things, PRIOR to performing the DS.

I therefore see NO reason why Dr. K's learning curve for the lap DS

would be any shorter than that of any other doctor.

In addition, as Hull has pointed out, the " true " lap DS is

still " investigational " (as the insurance companies like to say).

Bottom line: If you hop up on Dr. K's table for a lap DS right now,

you are volunteering for an experimental surgery by a surgeon who is

not experienced in performing it.

My advice, give him a hundred or so Lap DS's to work the kinks out

before signing up for it.

Tom