We are involved in undergraduate training during the II and III clinical years.  The II clinical year is a “clerkship” posting.  The students spend 2 weeks with us in batches of 4-6 students at a time.  They learn the functioning of a surgical unit, co-operation with other specialties in the management of our patients, basic surgical skills and basic “medical management of the surgical patient”.

All general surgical postgraduate trainees spend two months with us.  During this period they are exposed to all aspects of the specialty including diagnosis, investigation, multidisciplinary planning, post operative care, continuing outpatient management and surveillance. They will be assisted to do laparoscopic cholecystectomy, creation of a Roux en Y loop and if case load permits exploration common bile duct with biliary enteric anastomosis.  They will assist all the major HPB operations including liver transplantation. 

We run a 2 year post-doctoral fellowship to train surgeons in HPB Surgery.  The fellow will be trained in all aspects of the specialty including diagnosis, investigation, multidisciplinary planning, execution of various surgical procedures, post operative care and continuing outpatient management and surveillance. The fellow will be exposed to a variety of HPB surgical operations including liver transplantation.  Fellows will be required to maintain a log of all surgical operations they are involved in.

We conducted the II certificate course in HPB Surgery under the aegis of the Indian Chapter of IHPBA in 2009.  We hope to conduct another such course at the end of 2013. 

We have a half day session a week devoted to audit and academic activity. A system of documentation of all operations is in place along with internal and external audit of all adverse events and postoperative complications and mortality. The unit also maintains a database of all patients undergoing major HPB operations and audits treatment outcomes once a year.

We are involved in the following research projects:

• Randomized control trial comparing PAIR against laparoscopic hydatid cyst excision in the treatment of hydatid liver disease
• Randomized control trial to assess the efficacy of Octreotide in pancreatic fistula after pancreaticoduodenectomy for periampullary carcinoma and carcinoma head of pancreas

• Retrospective analysis of risk factors for choledocholithiasis