SPECIAL ARTICLES   

International Angiology 2004 March;23(1):76-8

Copyright © 2004 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

lingua: Inglese

Vascular surgery training in Greece

Lazarides M. K. ¹, Tzortzis E. ^{1, 2}, Liapis C. D. ²

¹ Department of Vascular Surgery, University Hospital of Alexandroupolis, “Demokritos” University Medical School, Alexandroupolis, Greece 2 2nd Propedeutic Department of Surgery, Athens Medical School, “Laikon” University Hospital, Athens, Greece

The aim of the study was to describe current training in vascular surgery in Greece. The method used was the presentation of data obtained by direct contact with the units. Vascular surgery has been a mono-specialty in Greece since 1989. The duration of training is 7 years (3 years common trunk in general surgery, 3 years in vascular surgery and 1 year in cardiothoracic surgery). However, its duration often exceeds 11 years due to lost time in waiting to start training. The latter happens because there has been a tremendous increase of the number of medical graduates during the last decade and thus the number of trainees has increased disproportionately to the demand for vascular surgeons nationwide. Greece has the second higher ratio of vascular trainees per million population in EU (3.6 trainees/million population). There are 14 accredited centres for training in vascular surgery, the majority of them being in Athens (9/14). In these centres there are a total of 52 trainers and 38 trainees (ratio 1.4/1). An average of 380 operations are performed per centre/year and 140 operations/trainee/year. In conclusion, there is a need for re-defining the training programme in vascular surgery in Greece. The main concern is the tremendous increase in medical graduates leading to a discrepancy between accredited training posts and fellows waiting to fill them.