SUS BJS Lecture: The Future of Surgery is Flexible and Image Guided

SUS BJS Lecturer Dr. Silvana Perretta gave the lecture addressing Surgery of the Third Millenium. She described how Surgery transformed from maximally invasive to minimally invasive, and most recently to endoscopic approaches. Cholecystectomy went from an open operation to laparoscopic cholecystectomy and then to NOTES cholecystectomy. Technology has developed even further with surgical nano robotics which will allow us to be more and more minimally invasive.

Many important endoscopic procedures were all invented by surgeons, and we need to be a part of developing these evolving therapies. Endoscopic approaches allow for decreased pain, decreased cost and improved imaging when combining endoscopy and laparoscopy. She described many up and coming technologies which will help transform the care of patients. She encouraged us to learn from cardiac surgery and to reshape our work and our specialties so that we can combine surgery, interventional radiology and endoscopy. Often we all work in silos, therefore we lack awareness of technical developments which could help us optimize cost and quality. Additionally, as we train across specialty lines we will need to increase competence based training.

Three paths
Surgical endoscopy
Percutaneous image guided surgery
Surgical science and innovation and technology

She has developed a large e-learning platform utilizing ex-vivo, in-vivo and simulation. This fellowship program has trained 170 surgeons from 30 countries since 2014. The future is filled with exciting technology that we need to embrace and help to develop so that we can optimize the care of our patients.