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Background: Endoscopic surgery also has been becoming widespread in the field of pediatric surgery. However, most disease treated by pediatric surgery in a single institution are small number of cases. Besides, the variety of operative procedures that need to be performed in this field is quite wide. For these reasons, pediatric surgeons have limited opportunities to perform endoscopic surgery. Therefore, it is difficult to introduce advanced endoscopic surgery at a single local hospital. To educate pediatric surgeons in local hospitals, for widespread advanced pediatric endoscopic surgery safely, and to eliminate the need for patient centralization, we have introduced a proctoring system. We compared the surgical results of our institution, a center hospital, with other local institutions, to investigate the feasibility of our proctoring system. Methods: The experienced pediatric surgeon of our institution visits local hospitals to provide onsite coaching and supervises pediatric surgeons on the learning curve. All patients who underwent laparoscopic cyst excision and hepaticojejunostomy for choledochal cysts, one of the advanced pediatric endoscopic surgeries was retrospectively reviewed. Results: Thirty-four cases were evaluated (14 cases in our institution, 20 cases in 9 other institutions). The procedures of all 34 cases were performed by surgeons with 0-2 cases of experience in the procedure. There were no open conversion cases. There was no significant difference in the operative date. There was 1 case (6.7%) of postoperative complications during hospitalization at our institution and 3 cases (14.3%) at other institutions ( P  = .47). Two cases of late complications (13.3%) occurred at our institution, whereas 6 cases (28.6%) occurred at other institutions ( P  = .28). Conclusion: With the proctoring system, the performance and completion of advanced pediatric endoscopic surgery at local institutions was feasible. This has important implications given the ever-growing demand for pediatric endoscopic surgery and the increasing need for competent pediatric endoscopic surgeons.

Purpose: Various studies have shown the benefit of three-dimensional (3D) systems over two-dimensional (2D) systems in endoscopic surgery. However, few studies have focused on pediatric endosurgery. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of 2D and 3D environments on the time taken and forceps manipulation by comparing experts and trainees using a laparoscopic hepaticojejunostomy simulator. Methods: We have developed a simulator of laparoscopic hepaticojejunostomy for congenital biliary dilatation. Seventeen participants of pediatric surgeons (4 experts and 13 trainees) performed hepaticojejunostomy using our simulator in both 2D and 3D environment. We evaluated the required time, total path length, and average velocities of bilateral forceps in both situations. Results: Obtained results show the findings for the required time (seconds; 2D, experts: 810.43 ± 321.64 vs. trainees: 1136.02 ± 409.96, P  = .17) (seconds; 3D, experts: 660.21 ± 256.48 vs. trainees: 1017 ± 280.93, P  = .039), total path length of right forceps (mm; 2D, experts: 38838.23 ± 30686.63 vs. trainees: 52005.47 ± 31675.02, P  = .48)(mm; 3D, experts: 24443.09 ± 12316.32 vs. trainees: 45508.09 ± 26926.27, P  = .16), total path length of left forceps (mm; 2D, experts: 131635.54 ± 71669.94 vs. trainees: 245242.48 ± 130940.25, P  = .48)(mm; 3D, experts: 88520.42 ± 56766.63 vs. trainees: 230789.75 ± 107315.85, P  = .024), average velocities of right forceps (mm/second; 2D, experts: 44.80 ± 21.85 vs. trainees: 44.37 ± 18.92, P  = .97) (mm/second; 3D, experts: 37.28 ± 16.49 vs. trainees: 42.58 ± 14.40, P  = .54), average velocities of left forceps (mm/second; 2D, experts: 156.65 ± 38.69 vs. trainees: 202.58 ± 63.80, P  = .20) (mm/second; 3D, experts: 125.64 ± 44.30 vs. trainees: 219.42 ± 43.82, P  < .01). Conclusion: The experts performed more effectively when using the 3D system. Using 3D, the total path length of the left forceps of expert pediatric surgeons was significantly shorter than trainee pediatric surgeons, and the average velocities of the left forceps tip of expert pediatric surgeons was significantly slower than trainee pediatric surgeons. These results suggest that training of assisting hand is necessary for advanced pediatric endosurgery to avoid organ injury.

Purpose: Late postoperative complications in choledochal cyst (CC) patients are severe problems that affect the quality of life (QOL). We evaluated the postoperative complications and health-related QOL (HRQOL) of CC patients ≥ 18 years of age., Methods: From April 1984 to January 2018, 114 CC patients underwent definitive surgery at our institution. Seventy-nine patients reached ≥ 18 years of age. The HRQOL was assessed using the Japanese version of the SF-36v2. Eight health domain (physical functioning, role-physical, body pain, general health, role-emotional, vitality, mental health, and social functioning) scores and three component summary [physical component summary, mental component summary (MCS), and role-social component summary] scores were compared between the patients with and without complications (C [+] vs. C [-])., Results: Thirty-five patients answered the questionnaires. Twelve patients had postoperative complications. Among the eight domains, the score of general health was significantly lower in C [+] patients than in C [-] patients (p = 0.0488). Among the three component scores, the MCS score in C [+] patients was lower than in C [-] patients without significance (p = 0.0953)., Conclusions: The HRQOL of CC patients ≥ 18 years of age was mostly acceptable. However, postoperative complications can impair the sense of well-being and affect the mental health.