Perfil da formação dos cirurgiões com atuação em transplante renal no estado de Minas Gerais

Abstract

Brazil is the fourth largest kidney transplant in the world in absolute numbers, however,these numbers represent only40% of the national demand.Apotential cause is the shortage of specialized health professionals. In the country, there is no universal and well-defined proposal about the training process of the KT specialized surgeon. To explore the profile of surgical teams that work in KT in MinasGerais (MG), obtaining information about the training of their specialists, form of remuneration and area of activity in the health system. Cross-sectional study, in which all KT active services in MG were invited to participate. Services that performed at least one KT per year in the last 5 years were considered active. In the first phase, the invitation anddata collection form were sent by email to the heads of the active services, collecting demographic data, data on the institution,the composition of the team, employment relationshipand form of remuneration.The secondphase consisted of sending the research form to the surgeons of the active teams, and collecting data about training to work in the KT. The cross-center response rate was high (89%) and half of kidney transplant surgeons responded to the survey (39/78). Most KT centers were public teaching institutions, with remuneration based on production without a formal contract, with an average of 6±2.4 surgeons/team and 94.2% with a urologist. Surgeons were male (95%), with a mean age of 46.3±9.7 years, urologists (59%) and performed organ harvesting and transplantation. Only one worked exclusively with transplantation. They reported 13±9.4 years of KT training and 10±9.7 years as part of KT teams. Only 25.6% had specialization and formal training in transplantation, and only one completed a formal medical residency in KT. Lack of training programs was the most frequently cited reason (48.4%) and 25.8% reported as unnecessary the specialized program. Despite specific training, surgeons specialized in KT revealed less favorable employment contracts and remuneration. Kidney transplant surgeons are not unique, and most have not attended a formal kidney transplant program due to unavailability. This data should guideactions to improve training programs andenable the formation of new KT teams. Conclusion:The majority of services are associated with teaching andprovides services to the health system. Surgeons specializing in KT are a minority in surgical teams, possibly due to the difficulty of working exclusively in this area and the low number of vacancies offered in medical residency programs. These data can help to guide actions designed to improve training programs and the creation of new KT teams.