Surgical Residency Training in Developing Countries: West African College of Surgeons as a Case Study.

Background: In 1904, William Halsted introduced the present model of surgical residency program which has been adopted worldwide. In some developing countries, where surgical residency training programs are new, some colleges have introduced innovations to the Halsted's original concept of surgical residency training. These include 1) primary examination, 2) rural surgical posting, and 3) submission of dissertation for final certification.