Surgery and animals

[Mindy]

Can anyone tell me how much animal use occurs in a surgery residency? In essence, are you REQUIRED to use animals to practice surgical technique?

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[tussy]

I am a first year surgery resident, and i have never used animals. There are no animals used to practice on in the program that i am in. I've actually never heard of using animals in surgery. I have learned by watching and then operating on people (under very close supervision of course).

 

[jawurheemd]

I don't think that there are a lot of animal labs conducted anymore in any residency. That being said, even though I'm not in a surgery residency, I've already taken part in two animal labs. While I was somewhat put-off by the experience, I must admit that the skills that I picked up are life-saving. The first lab exprience involved intubating ferets -- their airway is very similar to that of a neonate. Since that time, I've had to intubate neonates -- so the actual skill that I was able to learn in a controlled setting came in handy. The other animal lab experience was conducted on dogs in an Advance Trauma Life Support (ATLS) course. We learned how to perform a number of invasive, resuscitative procedures. The benefit of doing theses procedures in an animal lab means that we won't be learning these skills on the job in an emergency situation when time is of essence. For the most part however, I feel that most skills can and should be learned at the bedside/OR in a controlled setting under close suprevision.

-James

 

[droliver]

There are a # of laparoscopy training courses that use pigs to perform various procedures on( cholecystectomies ,spleenectomies,gastrectomies,etc)

 

[Djanaba]

...there are also a number of computerized replica-type machines and programs that let you do virtual surgery.

As a medical student, I've had the opportunity to perform a variety of procedures on a pig. However, I was not REQUIRED to, and I simply scrubbed in and observed the whole thing. No one but one fellow student asked why I was not participating. It was not held against me in any way. I felt, actually, that I missed nothing with my decision, and those who participated enjoyed being able to perform procedures that they will never do again (as they were on their required surgery rotation but did not intend to pursue a surgical residency). In this case, you will more than likely be able to find wiggle room.

 

[Mindy]

Thanks for the feedback. I knew that the minimally invasive programs often utilized animals. I am rather excepting of the use of animals in training/research, but cannot convince myself to participate (goes aginst my own personal beliefs). Good to hear that non-participation isn't condemned.

 

[tussy]

Originally posted by Djanaba:
[QBAs a medical student, I've had the opportunity to perform a variety of procedures on a pig. ... and those who participated enjoyed being able to perform procedures that they will never do again (as they were on their required surgery rotation but did not intend to pursue a surgical residency.[/QB]

Hmmm, I don't understand why animals should be sacrificed for people who do not need to know how to do these procedures. It's one thing for someone to practice a lap chole on a pig before doing it on a person, but it's quite another when it's a med student who's just doing it for fun.

 

[Winged Scapula]

The only animals I've worked on have been the pigs in my ATLS course. We use a Virtual Reality lab here for laparoscopic practice although as droliver notes, there are many courses and schools which do use live, anesthetized animals for such training. In general, all work in done on humans - which is fine by me.