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St Luke’s Medical Center (SLMC) has just finished its offering for the first International Course on Minimally Invasive Surgery which was held for two sessions this month that featured hands-on dissection of fresh frozen human cadavers that were sourced as part of a body donation program from the United States.
SLMC Minimally Invasive and Robotic Surgery Center head Dr. Jeffrey Domino said that the use of fresh frozen cadavers would allow surgeons a hands-on training when they undertake their minimally invasive surgeries on human organs thus providing a real topnotch experience.
Domino said that the medical center has come up with the program to level up its training program for surgeons undertaking minimally invasive surgery in laparoscopic and endoscopic workshops as well as others lined up during the two-part training sessions cum workshop.
Also on hand to train surgeons were experts from Japan who discussed hands-on dissections of Upper GI Surgery, Bariatric and Metabolic Surgery, Colorectal Surgery, Laparoscopic Suturing Workshop, Advanced Minimal Access Endocrine Surgery, Silent Mentor Gynelogic Workshop, Advanced Laparoscopic Hernia Surgery, and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Workshop.
Domino said that the use of fresh frozen cadavers provided a “real experience” for surgeons compared to the usual history of surgery which starts at “See One , Do One” training or when an upcoming surgeon is tutored by way of observing an expert and then doing the surgery later on other patients.
The history of surgery , Domino said, has evolved from what used to be big scars and longer hospital stays to the small incisions on the body and shorter hospital stays. Thus, patients want to avail themselves of minimally invasive surgeries since it requires less stitches and less pain.
Domino said that the fresh frozen cadavers usually come from those who execute body donation programs. He cited that Buddhists , for instance, donate their bodies for science and the medical field since they believe that the body donation takes them to a higher plane in their spiritual life.
He said that the international faculty in the workshops were Yosuke Seki, MD, PhD from Votsuya Medical Cube, Tokyo Japan; Luigi Boni from University of Insubria, Varese, Italy; Joseph Kurian from the Joseph Kurian Hospital, Chennai, India; Fang Yoke Fai, National University Hospital, Singapore; Firman Santoso, General Hospital Manacor, Majorca , Spain and Kai Yin See of Gleneagles Medical Center, Singapore.
SLMC president and CEO Edgardo Cortez, MD, said the training sessions was “another medical milestone “ for the medical center as it is the “first of such activity in the country where fresh frozen human cadavers will be utilized in a hands-on soft tissue dissection workshop.”
St Luke’s , which now has the most advanced “soft tissue virtual simulators,” in the country, is setting its sights on being an internationally recognized academic medical center.