Surgical applied anatomy: alive and kicking

Abstract

Background Contention exists amongst anatomists, clinicians and surgeons about how much anatomical knowledge medical students need, although what is taught should be aligned with current surgical practice. The aim of this study was to explore the scope of recent advances in applied anatomy as highlighted in the ANZ Journal of Surgery in each of the surgical specialties. Methods The 2018 volume of the ANZ Journal of Surgery was narrowed to 254 articles by applying the search term ‘anatomy’. The main topic was extracted from each paper. The content of the paper was assessed for ‘novel description’ or ‘novel application’ of anatomical knowledge and classified accordingly. Results Most papers with an anatomical focus were from general surgery, which focused on surgical techniques, outcomes and management. Vascular surgery had the highest percentage of papers with a novel description and application of anatomy. Although cardiothoracic and paediatric surgery had no papers with a novel description of anatomy, novel applications of anatomy were a focus in each speciality. Conclusion The trend towards novel applications of anatomical knowledge in all surgical specialties should encourage medical schools to shape their anatomy curricula in tandem with such advances as they evolve. The high proportion of novel applications and descriptions of anatomy in general surgery indicates continued growth as a benchmark of anatomical understanding. Vascular surgery's proportion of novel application and description of anatomy may change the way students will learn vascular anatomy to incorporate endovascular, radiologically based approaches.

Is a little anatomy sufficient or is a little more too much?

“…Anatomy is a recognized, essential medical science, and two contributions in this issue of the journal remind us again of the pivotal, yet ever‐changing, role of anatomy in operative surgery 11 and in medical education more broadly 12 . Saniotis and Henneberg highlight the clinical importance of anatomical variants and how they may impact on the interpretation of diagnostic imaging, understanding pathophysiology and predicting surgical outcomes 11 .…”

“…A different objective is addressed in the paper by Farley et al . who promote and advance the theme of consolidating and improving curriculum content in anatomy teaching by emphasizing the application of clinically relevant, novel, imaging‐descriptive techniques on surgical practice 12 . This implies a need for a substantial shift in the manner that anatomy course content is taught, including vertical and horizontal integration throughout a 4‐year graduate medical programme.…”