Each year ESCP provides the opportunity for ten young surgeons with an interest in coloproctology to undertake a three-month fellowship in a different country. Here, four of the 2013 fellows report on their experiences:
Siarhei Batayeu
from Grondo Regional Hospital, Grondo Medical University, Belarus
visited Hôpital St. Antoine, Paris, France under the direction of Emmanuel Tiret
Opportunities like this amazing fellowship are not common for surgeons in Belarus, so I was really lucky to get one thanks to Medtronic and ESCP.
Everyone at Hôpital St. Antoine was very kind and supportive. I saw a great deal, not only of colorectal surgery, but liver and upper GI surgery too, which was fantastic. I am particularly grateful to Dr. Najim Chafai who kindly helped me to settle in and even helped me to find new local friends to play football with!
I am convinced that in any speciality, especially like surgery and coloproctology, attention to detail is of vital importance. Learning and practising these details eventually make you a better specialist-surgeon. Here in Paris at St. Antoine Hospital with the help of Prof. Emmanuel Tiret and all his team I have seen and learned a lot of these details in various pathologies. This will definitely benefit my work back home and will improve standards and outcomes of medical care in my home institution.
Siarhei gave a brief presentation about his fellowship experience at the ESCP meeting in Belgrade in September 2013
Fatma Ayca Gultekin
from Bulent Ecevit University School of Medicine, Zonguldak, Turkey
visited University Hospital of Nantes, Nantes, France under the direction of Paul Antoine Lehur
I was honoured to be one of the recipients of 2012/2013 Covidien sponsored ESCP Fellowship. My three months’ fellowship at University Hospital of Nantes gave me the opportunity to learn skills that will help my future career in colorectal surgery.
I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Paul A Lehur, Dr. Guillaume Meurette and Dr. Juliet Podevin, they shared with me their experience and knowledge about pelvic floor disease, robotic and laparoscopic colorectal surgery. I had the chance to observe, learn and get hands-on experience in a wide variety of colorectal surgical diseases. I was actively involved in robotic surgeries, and I learnt tips and tricks of robotic surgery from Dr. Meurette. Prof. Lehur kindly taught me different techniques for the treatment of rectal prolapse and SNS (Sacral Nerve Stimulation) device placement in a step-by-step manner. I also had the chance to attend his highly specialized outpatient clinics for pelvic floor disease, and he gave deep insights into treatment options of fecal incontinence (pros and cons of SNS, magnetic and artificial anal sphincters).
I would like to thank Prof. Lehur for being a great mentor to me. He and Dr. Meurette gave me an opportunity to study an extremely valuable database, and helped me design two studies and send them to very important congresses and valuable journals.
Once again, I am very grateful to ESCP and Covidien for enabling this opportunity. Receiving this fellowship has not only made a huge contribution to my colorectal surgery career but also given me a chance to meet wonderful people.
Monica Millan Scheiding
from Hospital de Bellvitge, Barcelona, Spain
visited St Mark´s Hospital, Harrow, UK under the direction of Carolynne Vaizey
I am very grateful to the ESCP for the opportunity to visit St. Mark´s hospital for 2 months. Under the supervision of Miss Carolynne Vaizey, I had the chance to participate in complex pelvic floor and IBD outpatient clinics, enterocutaneous fistula, IBD, and pelvic floor operations, and to experience the outstanding multidisciplinary team set-up unique to this prestigious institution. I was also very fortunate that my stay coincided with the postgraduate training term, laparoscopic courses, and the Frontier´s in Colorectal Disease Conference, which all proved to be valuable educational experiences.
I would like to thank Miss Vaizey, Dr Warusavitarne, Dr Faiz and all the professionals at St.Mark´s who made my stay both educational and enriching. My sincere gratitude also to the ESCP for this grant, my Department for allowing me to leave for two months, and Miss Helfer and J. Ferrari for their help in organizing my stay.
Saulius Svagzdys
from Lithuania University of Health Sciences, Kaunas, Lithuania
visited Geneva University hospital, Geneva, Switzerland under the direction of Bruno Roche
ESCP and Medtronic gave me the opportunity to spend three wonderful months visiting Geneva University Hospital’s colorectal unit, under the leadership of Prof. Bruno Roche. I met warm and generous people who shared their professional knowledge and experience with me.
During my visit, I observed Prof. Roche’s consultations and investigations of patients with proctologic diseases in the outpatient department. I attended and assisted in many operations on haemorrhoids, anal fistula, rectal prolaps, fecal incontinence, rectocele, pylonidal sinuses and anal fissure. I learned about electrode implantation for sacral nerve stimulation and all successive procedures. I acquired methods of transperineal and transanal ultrasound examination. I had the opportunity to attend and assist in laparoscopic operations due to all localisations of colorectal cancer which were done by Dr. Frederic Ris. I even watched an operation with HIPEC due to extended rectal cancer.
I visited hospitals in Nuchatel, Nyon and Fribourg and observed their operating rooms and outpatient departments while there. During this period I attended a very useful European Colorectal congress in St. Gallen.
I am very grateful to Prof. Bruno Roche and his team for this useful and impressive visit. Thank you for your kindness, generosity and sophistication. I have expanded my knowledge in surgery and proctology as well as in life understanding. I know that this experience is very important to my daily work, professional improvement and future life.
