Impact of Gift Giving During General Surgery Resident Match Interviewing Since Initiation of Virtual Interviews.

Objective: Following the transition to virtual interviews in 2021, interviewees began receiving gifts as a recruitment strategy in lieu of the preinterview dinner. This study characterizes quantity, type, and frequency of gift receipt in relation to program perception and ranking.

Design: An anonymous survey study was conducted.

Routine Assessment of Surgical Resident Wellness-Related Concerns During Biannual Review.

Background: Surgery residency confers stress burdens on trainees. To monitor and mitigate areas of concerns, our education team implemented a 6-item biannual survey querying potential stressors. We reviewed the initial 5-year experience to assess for trends and improve efforts in maintaining resident well-being.

Subcutaneous Endoscopic-Assisted Ligation of the Internal Ring for Inguinal Hernia Repair in Neonates Under Spinal Anesthesia.

While laparoscopy is now widely accepted for inguinal hernia repair in infants, it traditionally has required general anesthesia. We sought to evaluate the safety of laparoscopic inguinal hernia repair in infants under spinal anesthesia. We performed a retrospective cohort study of all inguinal hernia repairs at a single institution between December 2011 and June 2019 in patients younger than 6 months of age.

Return of the Banana Knife: An Alternative Instrument for Laparoscopic Pyloromyotomy.

When the disposable arthroscopic banana knife (Linvatec, Largo, FL) became unavailable, many pediatric surgeons adapted the use of spatula tip cautery for laparoscopic pyloromyotomy; however, reusable arthroscopic knives remain readily available and are well suited to the procedure. We compared laparoscopic pyloromyotomy with a reusable arthroscopic banana knife (Sklar, West Chester, PA; catalog no. 45-6050) to those using spatula tip cautery at a single institution between September 1, 2012, and December 31, 2019.

Boot Camp in a Box: Initial Experience with Pretraining Skills Preparation for New Interns.

Purpose: In order to increase selected skills at onset of training, we provided newly matched PGY-1 trainees with materials and instructions to practice these skills, as well as the opportunity to share video-recorded performance and receive feedback based on these videos.

Methods: Knot tying and suturing kits, instruments and supplies, and video instructions for task performance were sent to newly matched trainees to our program (n = 10), with instructions to practice 4 tasks (1- and 2-handed knot tying, interrupted and running suturing) until self-assessed comfort with each task was achieved or the 8-week time point before start of training was reached. Each trainee returned a video of each task, which was graded by blinded reviewers for time and errors using an itemized evaluation instrument (12 items for suturing and five items for knot-tying).