Hand surgeon - to be or not to be? That is the question. Compulsory health service experience of hand surgery in Turkey

Abstract

Objectives: Hand surgery has been a major theme throughout the education of orthopedics and traumatology (OT) along with plastic, reconstructive, and aesthetic (PRA) surgery residents. However, to work as a hand surgeon during compulsory health service (CHS) is a new topic for Turkey. We aimed to share the elective surgical experience of six hand surgeons during CHS in different centers of Turkey. Methods: The hand surgeons who have already finished their CHS or were up to finish their CHS was requested to fill operation records (OR) form for elective procedures performed in the surgeon's usual daily practice. The records from all six surgeons were integrated. Results: Five OT and one PRA originated hand surgeons were available for this study. Tendon procedures were the most commonly performed procedure (14.3%), followed by phalanx (10.6%), and then by nerve (10.4%) procedures. A small percentage (2.7%) of operations performed were beyond the scope of hand surgery. Simple procedures (trigger finger release, carpal tunnel release, foreign material extraction, ganglion cysts excision, de Quervain's tenosynovitis release) were comprising 20.9% of all the operations performed. Conclusion: Hand surgery comprises a broad spectrum of disorders and requires a distinct fellowship period. Hand surgeons bear an important mission about basic hand surgery education of OT and PRA residents and encourage them to perform simple procedures. The possibility of team-work will definitely increase the interest for hand surgery and result in better outcomes for patients. Finally, we honestly declare that we feel satisfied with our special work and invite residents to walk together in this endless hand surgery road.