Live surgical workshops: Balancing patient care and professional development

The dissemination of skills acquired by master surgeons remains an unmet need within the surgical community. Live surgical workshops (LSWs) are envisaged as comprehensive initiatives to foster ongoing learning and skill enhancement for surgeons across all surgical sub-specialties. With advances in technology, these workshops are now being conducted worldwide and are commonly featured in major scientific meetings. A public interest litigation filed in the Supreme Court of India has sparked controversies, raising questions about the utility of LSW and the ethical considerations surrounding their conduct. We provide a comprehensive review of the existing literature pertaining to LSWs. A body of literature related to LSWs was identified, outlining the perceived benefits and risks associated with such workshops. Overall, LSWs were perceived by surgeons to have immense educational potential. However, concerns regarding the perceived benefits for the audience and anticipated issues related to ethics and safety need to be addressed. These appear to be predominantly rooted in qualitative studies that explore the perspectives of surgeons and attendees, rather than in objective quantitative studies that investigate patient safety and outcomes. Recognizing the potential for underreporting adverse events from LSWs, reliance on published figures of equality between groups is at best subject to further studies. Field experts have proposed several interventions to conduct LSWs safely, based on their experience.