Abstract
Introduction
Humanitarian surgery is essential to surgical care in limited resource settings. The
difficulties associated with resource constraints necessitate special training for
civilian surgeons to provide care in these situations. Specific training or curricula
for humanitarian surgeons are not well described in the literature. This scoping review
summarizes the existing literature and identifies areas for potential improvement.
Methods
A review of articles describing established courses for civilian surgeons interested
in humanitarian surgery, as well as those describing training of civilian surgeons
in conflict zones, was performed. A total of 4808 abstracts were screened by two independent
reviewers, and 257 abstracts were selected for full-text review. Articles describing
prehospital care and military experience were excluded from the full-text review.
Results
Of the eight relevant full texts, 10 established courses for civilian surgeons were
identified. Cadaver-based teaching combined with didactics were the most common course
themes. Courses provided technical education focused on the management of trauma and
burns as well as emergencies in orthopedics, neurosurgery, obstetrics, and gynecology.
Other courses were in specialty surgery, mainly orthopedics. Two fellowship programs
were identified, and these provide a different model for training humanitarian surgeons.
Conclusions
Humanitarian surgery is often practiced in austere environments, and civilian surgeons
must be adequately trained to first do no harm. Current programs include cadaver-based
courses focused on enhancing trauma surgery and surgical subspecialty skills, with
adjunctive didactics covering resource allocation in austere environments. Fellowships
programs may serve as an avenue to provide a more standardized education and a reliable
pipeline of global surgeons.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 21, 2022
Accepted:
October 18,
2022
Received in revised form:
August 4,
2022
Received:
March 1,
2022
Identification
Copyright
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