The unmet needs for minimally invasive liver surgery training

To the Editor: My name is Ahmed Elgendi, a hepato-pancreato-biliary surgeon, Alexandria University, Egypt. I am writing to share my experience in attending the minimally invasive liver surgery training program as part of the Belt and Road initiative in West China Hospital (Chengdu, China), and the impact it made on changing our concepts and practices. Laparoscopic surgery, a cornerstone of modern minimally invasive procedures, has revolutionized the field of surgery over the past few decades. With its proven benefits of shorter hospital stays, reduced pain, and quicker recovery times, the demand for skilled laparoscopic surgeons is on the rise. Laparoscopic surgery training is critical for liver surgeons looking to specialize in minimally invasive procedures. This training equips surgeons with the skills needed to perform such complex surgeries with precision and safety. The program provided intensive training, combining theoretical knowledge with practical experience in real-life surgical settings. The platform was well constructed, perfectly executed, fulfilled all the requirements from theoretical concepts to clinical application, and the level of the training center was world class. I can speak for all the trainees from 13 countries (the ist was shown in the Supplementary File, https://links.lww.com/CM9/C233); we felt ourselves improving every minute and received well-guided supervision and advice and guidance from highly qualified trainers. West China Hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities and an experienced faculty to provide comprehensive training. The hospital is recognized for excellence in education, research, and clinical practice. Surgeons receiving training at such an institute will be well-prepared to meet the demands of the global healthcare industry. Egypt had a public health problem with high rates of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections that mandated a wide successful nationwide campaign for screening and treating HCV cases; this led to the World Health Organization (WHO) announcing that Egypt had attained the gold tier on its way to be free of HCV. However, HCV has left us with many patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), either requiring resection or transplantation. By attending such training program focused on minimally invasive liver surgery, we successfully achieved a significant shift among the number of patients treated at our institute with laparoscopic liver resection; it resulted in improved outcomes and we are on the way to introducing minimally invasive liver surgery in the living donor liver transplant program. I am sure similar outcomes were achieved in the other countries for my 25 fellow trainees who received the same training program. Such training course successfully accomplished its mission of promoting minimally invasive liver surgery technology, strengthened professional academic exchanges among regions, and established an international multicenter research mechanism. We believe that the training course has set the stage for many more positive interactions between us as surgeons, educators, and researchers and we look forward to further engagement in the future. The beauty of the world lies in the diversity of its people, and strength lies in differences, not in similarities. Our interaction resulted in an everlasting friendship between us and it will be the beginning of collaboration between us in further research and scientific activities.