Bangladesh to train senior surgeons amid ‘growing’ demand for laparoscopic surgery

An advanced laparoscopic training is going to be held in a Dhaka hospital as the demand for the minimally invasive surgery “grows” in Bangladesh.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 24 March 2016, 11:43 AM
Updated : 24 March 2016, 11:43 AM

The surgery department of the Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College Hospital says it has tied up with the India’s largest body, the Association of Minimal Access Surgeons of India (AMASI), for training Bangladeshi doctors in Dhaka.
 
“Some 250 senior doctors from consultants to professors will take part in the three-day training and workshop from Mar 27,” Prof Uttam Kumar Barua, Director at the hospital, said at a press briefing on Thursday.
 
Principal of the college Prof ABM Muksudul Alam said the facility of the laparoscopic surgery had expanded “rapidly” across Bangladesh.
 
“In 1991 we had only one laparoscopic surgeon. But now the number is up to 500,” he said, “this technique spreads to the Upazilla and district level.”
 
Head of the surgery department Prof SM Amjad Hossain said more patients preferred laparoscopic surgery now than ever before.
 
“This (Laparoscopic surgery) offers many advantages compared with similar procedures performed through a large, open incision,” he said, “less pain, shorter hospital stays and early return to their activities.”
 
But Prof Amjad Hossain said training facilities did not grow to match the demand. “Doctors were learning the procedure on their own. We took this initiative to train up senior surgeons so that they can train the juniors later.”
 
He said most of the surgeries can be performed using laparoscopic technique now.
 
Gynaecologist Prof Farhana Dewan said they were also doing “most of the gynaecologic surgeries including in uterus and ovary by laparoscopic technique”.

Laparoscopic surgery, which is known as minimally invasive surgery, is a modern technique in which operations are performed through small incisions in the body.