[Teaching and learning--the surgical craft].

Abstract

Changes in surgical clientele made it necessary to reassess the operative training for surgeons. The aim must be to make surgical procedures and techniques transparent enough for learning and teaching. Today, it is possible to practice and to learn the reconstructive part of an operation, that means the suture techniques, independently of the patient. The difficulties in anastomotic techniques can be simulated, too. But it is still difficult to practice the preparatory part of an operation without patients, in other words: cold. By creating adequate models this problem will be solved in the near future.