European Society of Pediatric Endoscopic Surgeons (ESPES) guidelines for training program in pediatric minimally invasive surgery.

Purpose: The aim of this paper was to propose structured guidelines for a European pediatric MIS training program created by ESPES. Methods: A questionnaire, focused on how the pediatric training program in MIS has to be structured, was proposed to all participants at the ESPES Congress in Marseille in 2013. Results: We received 178 questionnaires but only 139 questionnaires were fully completed and analyzed. All respondents agree that the training program has to be divided into 4 steps: (1) theoretical part: 2 theoretical courses in laparoscopy (101/139 respondents, 72.7 %), 1 theoretical course in retroperitoneoscopy (99/139 respondents, 71.2 %) and 1 in thoracoscopy (91/139 respondents, 65.5 %); (2) experimental part: 10–20 h of training on pelvic trainer (103/139 respondents, 74.1 %) and 10 h of training on animal models (91/139 respondents, 65.5 %); (3) stages in European centers of reference for MIS: a 1–3 months stage (96/139 respondents, 69.1 %); (4) personal experience: 30 pro...