"The move from open surgery to minimally invasive surgery is a natural evolution. It means going from operating with four incisions to three, and then to two. Basically, it is a Philosophy, a way of thinking with advantages not only for the patient but also for the surgeon". This was explained at the University of Navarra by Dr. Diego Gonzalez Rivas, promoter of the Minimally Invasive Thoracic Surgery Unit at the Shanghai Pulmonary Hospital, who is credited with the development of the Uniportal VATS technique that allows lung tumors to be removed with a single incision .

The specialist, who spoke at conference Interactive Surgery for Students, affirmed that "the important thing is to keep making this procedure continue to progress. We have been adding innovation after innovation, a process that involves being out of the comfort zone which, at final, is the only way for surgery to evolve," explained the physician who teaches training all over the world.

In spite of having been internationally recognized, in his early days the Galician had to face some difficulties in developing his new technique. In this sense, he pointed out that "every step forward in medicine is accompanied by criticism. But obstacles are an apprenticeship in life: without them, without that initial struggle, I would not have been able to overcome them and make the technique expand".

Dr. Cavadas and some pioneering conference

Dr. Pedro Cavadas, plastic surgeon and author of the first face transplant in our country, also intervened at congress. The specialist encouraged the participants to "learn about everything because you never know when you are going to use it", as well as to "study hard and get involved with the patients". He also referred to the work he carries out in countries such as Kenya and Tanzania thanks to his foundation, which "means going back to the essence of medicine".

The first edition of conference Interactive Surgery for Students brought together nearly 350 students from all over Spain at campus of the University of Navarra. Over the course of several days, the students were able to broaden their surgical knowledge thanks to practical workshops, master lectures and the live broadcast, for the first time in an event for university students, of operations from the Clínica Universidad de Navarra.

In total, almost ten posters and several oral papers were presented, among which the winner was Dafne Gascón Alonso, from the School of Medicine of the University of Navarra, for her work "Transoral Robotic Surgery: a review of its current clinical application".