P opular opinion of medical missionaries has undergone wide swings during the last 2 centuries. Individuals who traveled far from home, often into dangerous territory to spread their religious faith in conjunction with medical care, have been both praised enthusiastically for their benevolent work, and castigated as pompous, presumptuous, and overly pious. Considering the enormous effect these ...

Microsurgery training in Singapore began in 1980 with the opening of the Experimental Surgical Unit. Since then, the unit has continued to grow and have held microsurgical training courses biannually. The road to becoming a full-fledged reconstructive surgeon requires the mastering of both microvascular as well as flap raising techniques and requires time, patience and good training facilities....

M any different physicians perform cosmetic and reconstructive surgical procedures of the face. Limited studies have suggested that medical students are most likely to choose a plastic surgeon or an oral and maxillofacial surgeon for various facial procedures. To our knowledge, these limited studies have not involved more than several hundred medical students in limited geographic areas. Owing ...

BACKGROUND The purpose of this study was to determine if a cognitive task analysis (CTA) could capture steps and decision points that were not articulated during traditional teaching of a colonoscopy. METHODS Three expert colorectal surgeons were videotaped performing a colonoscopy. After the videotapes were transcribed, the experts participated in a CTA. A 26-step procedural checklist and a ...

When treating renal injuries, the goals of the urologic surgeon are preservation of maximal renal function with a minimal risk of complications. To meet these, accurate staging is essential. The combined use of clinical and radiologic findings, with intra-operative information where available, will enhance the practitioner's ability to detect, classify, and treat renal injuries appropriately. W...

background: we presumed that the surgeon himself has an impact on the results after coronary artery bypass grafting (cabg) as there is no unique protocol for the discharge of post-operative cardiac patients at our institution. therefore, we examined whether the surgeon himself has an impact on the intensive care unit (icu) stay of isolated cabg patients. methods: we prospectively studied a tota...