Laparoscopy Today

NEW VIDEO AVAILABLE: Single Incision Sleeve Gastrectomy Using a Completely Intracorporeal Liver Retractor

JSLS Ranks in the Top 100 Again!

JSLS, Journal of the Society of Laparoendscopic Surgeons, was ranked 58th for full-text downloads in March 2009 out of more than 10,000 titles!

JSLS  has been ranked in the top 100 on IngentaConnect for full-text downloads in April, June, August, November, and December 2007; March, June, July, and August 2008; and February 2009. Search JSLS for critical findings in MIS, then get the details on how to submit your research to this top ranking journal.

www.Laparoscopy.org  The Laparoscopic Surgery Information Source

EUROAMERICAN SUMMIT IV GETS A SECOND LIFE!

Miami, FL – December 31, 2008 – For the first time, surgeons from around the world can participate in the EuroAmerican Summit IV in Orlando, Florida without having to go to Orlando. Imagine sitting at a computer in your office on another continent asking questions in real time of SLS faculty avatars. SLS has established a presence in Second Life that will allow just that.

“This is just another step in meeting our mission of providing information and education to help our members improve healthcare worldwide,” said Paul Alan Wetter, MD, FACOG, FACS, Professor Emeritus, University of Miami School of Medicine and Chairman of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. This Second Life presence will be previewed at the EuroAmerican Summit IV, Feb 11-14, 2009 in Orlando, Florida. The web portion of the Summit will be directed by Dr. Wetter; James C. Rosser, Jr., MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery, Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta; and Richard M. Satava, MD, FACS, Professor of Surgery, University of Washington. Second Life will allow surgeons to have access to SLS’s rich online content from journals, textbooks, and meetings. “This project is a great example of a game changing flat world application. Imagine a digital social phenomenon like Second Life being used for the greater good,” said Dr. Rosser. SLS has a strong digital presence with innovative Web content. Recently, its Index Medicus peer reviewed journal, Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, was rated in the top 100 of over 10,000 scientific journals based on downloads of its content, making it one of the most popular medical journals worldwide.

For more information, visit EuroAmerican Multispecialty Summit.


www.Laparoscopy.org  The Laparoscopic Surgery Information Source

TOP GUN LAPAROSCOPIC SKILLS AND SUTURING SUPER COURSE

February 2–6, 2009
Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

Get Your Laparoscopic Skills Up to Speed: Become One of the Best of the Best

Are you concerned that advanced laparoscopic surgery has passed you by? Afraid that you can never develop the skills needed to safely compete with you colleagues? Be concerned no longer. Dr. Butch Rosser and the Department of Surgery at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia have the solution. Come to the scheduled Top Gun Laparoscopic Skills and Suturing Super Course, Morehouse School of Medicine, National Center for Primary Care, 720 Westview Drive, Atlanta, GA and get up to speed in one week.

Over 6000 surgeons have trusted Dr. Rosser to jump-start their journey into advanced laparoscopic surgery and he can help you also. Whether you are a gynecologist, general surgeon, cardiac surgeon, or urologist come join us from February 2–6, 2009. Remember the edge of the envelope starts here.

For more information go to rosseramti.com or contact Myra Stewart, Administrative Assistant, Morehouse School of Medicine, Department of Surgery (404) 616-3562 or via e-mail at mstewart@msm.edu.

Presentation of the 2008 SLS Excel Award, 17th SLS Annual Meeting and Endo Expo 2008, September 17–20, 2008

September 18, 2008

Chicago, Illinois, USA

SLS' 2008 Excel Award recipient was presented to Harrith M. Hasson, MD, who lectured on "Evaluating Surgical Performance."

“I knew Harrith before I knew Harrith,” said Dr. Charles Koh in his introduction of Dr. Harrith Hasson, the 2008 Excel Award recipient. “He is humble but has an ever-searching brain.”

Attending the award ceremony, to Dr. Hasson’s surprise and delight, were “Harry’s Angels,” a group of devoted employees who worked by his side for many years while he was in Chicago.

Dr. Hasson has many firsts. He was the first to perform the open laparoscopy technique, which was named after him, the Hasson Technique, along with the instruments to be used during the procedure. His experience using this new technique was published in the Journal of Reproductive Medicine in 1974. He was the first to design a simulator for training surgeons, he has 52 patents for medical devices, and he has numerous publications and awards to his credit. RealSim Systems, founded by Hasson in 2004, develops laparoscopic simulators, which are considered better than virtual training simulators.

“To perform laparoscopic surgery,” said Hasson, “certain abilities are required. These include the ability to operate on a 3-D object from a 2-D image and the ability to develop psychomotor hand-eye coordination.” His current goal is to bring about a paradigm shift in the assessment and training of surgeons. He hopes the current system of using subjective measures to assess skills will be replaced by the use of objective measures for this purpose. With the use of simulators, skills can be objectively tested. “Some things are not teachable,” said Dr. Hasson. Each person is born with a certain skill level. Some have greater skill than others. Through the use of simulators, each person can practice until his or her particular skill is developed to its highest level. 

by Ann Conti Morcos, MA, ELS

www.Laparoscopy.org  The Laparoscopic Surgery Information Source

SLS Evening with Faculty, 17th SLS Annual Meeting and Endo Expo 2008, September 17–20, 2008

September 18, 2008

The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, Chicago, Illinois, USA

The magnificent Chicago skyline welcomed SLS faculty and guests to an incredible evening in extreme environments–soaring in space above the Earth and swimming in the depths of the Earth’s ocean.

Sailboats sliced through Lake Michigan’s calm waters as SLS faculty and guests arrived for this special event at the Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum, which sits along Lake Michigan near Soldier Field and the Chicago Field Museum. It was founded in 1930 by Max Adler and contains astronomical and planetarium artifacts dating from the 12th through the 20th centuries. It is the largest of its kind in the western hemisphere.

After touring the museum, faculty and guests enjoyed food, fun, and conversations with fellow SLS members and guests, then were awed by footage of space travel and the International Space Station and surgery in the depths of the ocean.

Imagine doing surgery from any position even while floating upside down or having a few-second delay from the time you move the arm of a surgical robot to the time the instrument performs the action in the patient. These are among the experiences that Dave R. Williams, MD, shared during his talk “Telerobotic Surgery in Extreme Environments.” Williams, a Canadian native, has made 2 space flights to the International Space Station, one in 1998 the other in 2007, and 3 space walks. He has also participated in the NEEMO missions in the ocean and is the first Canadian to do both. 

Today’s astronaut, said Williams, need not be a person with a military background. Today’s astronauts come from various fields, including medicine, education, and science. Surgery is being attempted in space as a way of preparing for a future flight to Mars, which will require three years of space travel. However, as in military deployments, medical care may be provided in space by a team member who is not a physician but who has training in wilderness medicine. Thus far, no humans have been operated on in space, only animals such as rats. During space travel, astronauts practice minimally invasive exercises on each other. Zero gravity causes changes to the human body, resulting in physiological challenges. Astronauts must learn ways to cope with these physiological changes before successful surgery can be performed in space. Astronauts are trying to understand the human body parts, including blood, which are altered in space. Other challenges include working in microgravity where everything must be restrained or it will float around, so astronauts must learn to work with instruments that are tied down in some way or that float around. By 2020, it is hoped that man will be able to return to the moon. One NEEMO mission included robotic telesurgery in which a physician in Canada performed a medical exercise using a simulator housed in a NEEMO facility deep underwater. This exercise provided practice in telesurgery, which may become necessary during long flights in outer space. As mankind advances toward exploring the universe, it is important to be able to provide medical care to astronauts, just as it is necessary to care for wounded soldiers in far off countries. Telesurgery with the use of robots and telementoring in extreme environments are vital for safety in future space exploration.

by Ann Conti Morcos, MA, ELS

Opening Ceremony, 17th SLS Annual Meeting and Endo Expo 2008, September 17–20, 2008

September 17, 2008

Chicago, Illinois, USA

The biggest thing “This Week in Chicago” was the SLS Annual Meeting and Endo Expo!

Opening the conference were the Blues Brothers who set the tone for an enjoyable evening with jokes and songs from days gone by that everyone could sing-along with. Dr. Paul Wetter announced several significant SLS achievements over the past year to the physicians from Korea, Turkey, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Australia, Portugal, Japan, France, Singapore, China, Venezuela, India, Pakistan, Czech Republic, Iran, Mexico, Canada, and other countries, and almost every state in the Union who attended the conference. Kudos are in order for the following:

·      JSLS, Journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons ranked in the top 100 downloads on the Ingenta Web site 6 times over the past year.

·      The JSLS table of contents ranked 9 of 10,000 downloads on the Ingenta site.

·      Prevention and Management of Laparoendoscopic Surgical Complications, 1st edition, is now available free online in Spanish. This translation is the result of the joint effort of SLS and ALACE (la Asociación Latinoamericana de Cirugía Endoscópica) and the work of Dr. Gustavo Stingel of SLS and Dr. Roberto Gallardo, President of ALACE. Prevention and Management has now been translated into Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish.

·      The History of Endoscopy by Dr. Camran Nezhat was recently published at http://laparoscopy.blogs.com/endoscopyhistory/. This is an open access publication, which is envisioned to operate like Wikipedia, with minimally invasive surgeons from around the world submitting information, photos, and their experiences for review and addition to the book. The book is available through RSS feed for downloading to your cell phone or other device. Dr. Nezhat had a fellowship to research and write this book, which took him 2 years.

·      Laparoscopy Today has been available online for 2 years. The latest issue is the first “green” issue, which can be downloaded as a PDF.

Following these announcements awards for the best scientific papers, videos, and poster presentations were handed out, and Dr. William E. Kelley, Jr., SLS President, gave his address. The Honorary Chairs for this year’s conference were Makote Hashizume, MD, PhD, of Japan who shared his expertise on image-guided minimally invasive robot-assisted surgery, and Errico Zupi, MD, of Italy who discussed NOTES. Rounding out the evening was a special talk by James “Butch” Rosser, Jr., MD, of “Top Gun” fame who shared his inspiring thoughts about virtual learning. With that, conference attendees followed the Blues Brothers into the welcome reception and opening of the exhibit hall, which marked the official opening of the conference.

by Ann Conti Morcos, MA, ELS

Laparoscopy Today, The Green Issue

Available online only.
Download your copy from the PDF Archives in the left column.

In the News

MEGADYNE introduces the education program “It’s So Easy Being Green”

It has been stated that more than 4 million tons of general waste is produced each year by US healthcare facilities (See “Medical waste: the issue,” Health Care Without Harm, www.noharm.org/us/medicalWaste/issue).

Introduced to support the AORN ‘s guidelines encouraging hospitals and surgical centers to create environmentally responsible policies and procedures, MEGADYNE’s “It’s So Easy Being Green” training program allows healthcare pro-viders to earn continuing education credit for learning about green practices. The program covers waste management, resource conservation and recycling practices, applied conservation, item re-processing, reuse and repair, and green construction practices. Register for the course online: www.megadyne.com.

Laparoscopy Today, The Essential Multidisciplinary Information Source

Laparoscopy Today is a semi-annual magazine and journal of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons. Circulation is 60,000 which includes all general surgeons, gynecologists, urologists, and residency programs. Laparoscopy Today features articles from leading experts on the most recent developments in minimally invasive therapies, the SLS President's Corner, Products for the Laparoscopic Surgeon, Conference Reports, Journal Watch, and the Laparoscopy Web which includes updates on websites that provide laparoscopic surgeons with invaluable information.

To your left is a Category Cloud, where frequently used categories appear larger than less frequently used categories. Click on one to bring up related postings.

This open access online version contains complete PDF files of past issues and searchable text. As well as the latest news from SLS, LaparoscopyToday.com features an innovative category cloud identifying hot MIS topics based on popularity.

www.Laparoscopy.org  The Laparoscopic Surgery Information Source