Benefits of surgical experience in a third-world country during residency.

Purpose: Completion of a United States surgical residency enables the graduate to provide service in most populated areas. Graduates are technically well trained and efficient in performing most surgeries. United States-based teaching facilities are generally furnished with technically advanced supplies and equipment.

Portal vein thrombosis: an unusual complication of laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Background: Complications following laparoscopic cholecystectomy are encountered infrequently due to increasing proficiency in laparoscopic surgery. The occurrence of portal venous thrombosis following laparoscopic cholecystectomy has not been previously described and forms the basis of this report.

Methods: A healthy, 32-year-old, female on oral contraceptives underwent an uneventful laparoscopic cholecystectomy for symptomatic gallbladder disease.