Current laparoscopic practice patterns among urologists in Turkey

Objective: Laparoscopic surgery has become increasingly popular in urology over the last decade. This survey was performed to evaluate the current practice patterns in laparoscopy among urologists in Turkey. Material and methods: A detailed questionnaire about urologic laparoscopic practice patterns was distributed to 1242 urologists who were working in Turkey. The questions pertained to age, practice demographics, and the amount and variety of laparoscopy performed. Results: Nearly half of the respondents (48.3%) already performed laparoscopy. Of the urologists in academic settings, including university hospitals and education and research hospitals, 69.6% and 59.4% performed laparoscopy, respectively. In state hospitals, the percentage of those who performed laparoscopy was lower (26.9%). The most important reasons mentioned for performing laparoscopy were shorter hospital stay, patient requests and greater flexibility of possible surgical techniques. The main laparoscopic procedures performed were nephrectomy (benign indication), 91%; renal cyst decortications, 90%; nephrectomy (malign indication), 65%; laparoscopic stone surgery, 47% and pyeloplasty, 38%. A large percentage (77.2%) of respondents intended to attend continuing education and to perform laparoscopy in the future. Conclusions: Our results show that laparoscopic practice steadily increases in frequency and that urologists are willing to substitute open surgery for laparoscopic surgery. The performance of laparoscopic surgery has become a goal for most urologists in Turkey to achieve in the near future.