There's a lot of concern in some circles about the future of American surgery. It's excellent, don't get me wrong. It's just that laparoscopic surgery doubled what we have to teach and the knowledge explosion just keeps on rolling. For the health care consumer, the issue is this: how can you find the expert surgeon you need?

It's not that good surgeons aren't out there in practice; they are the majority of practitioners. But there are some surgeons doing operations they have not trained adequately in and haven't done enough of. Yes, I've beat this drum before and I"ll keep on beating it if it will direct you to checking up on your surgeon and if it keeeps you safe. It's just interesting that rather than a rant from a blogger, the issue has been put out there by a respected naitonal surgical leader.

As you might imagine, this isn't new. Just more perplexing. Surgical leaders have warned of inadequate training in the past. In fact, when laparoscopic surgery first began in the early 1990s, one expert said that the ability of some surgeons with the less invasive techniques was so bad it was, "...just short of abuse."

Ask about your surgeons's experience. Realize that to perform a laparoscopic operation with minimum competence, the surgeon should have done at least 30 operations in training.

Most American surgeons are true experts. Just watch out for the slackers who haven't trained eneough to be considered competent.