Postgraduate education and role of surgical research in Germany.

In Germany at the very moment we have general surgery and 5 specialties, they are: traumatic, plastic and reconstructive, cardiac and central vessels as well as pediatric surgery. For qualification as a general surgeon one needs at least 6 years of straight training; two more years are necessary to qualify in one of the mentioned specialties. In some specialties one year of training can be taken into account for general surgery. The postgraduate education in each field requires a precisely defined kind and number of operations as well as an examination. There are some considerations in discussion, which should be outlined: Generally speaking this means, that the basis of 6 years of general surgery may be reduced to 4 years. Thus specialization could be started 2 years earlier. This special point is in strong discussion due to the fact that the surgical skillfulness of the young surgeons may be decreased. In university hospitals and in academic teaching hospitals surgical research is realized within the surgical department as well as in special departments for experimental surgery. The ideal would be that both institutions stimulate each other.