The student surgical society «Aesculap» organized the  M.I. Perelman International Student Surgical Olympiad on the basis of the operative surgery  and topographical anatomy department of the Sechenov university.

The Olympiad has not only become international but also has become larger than the previous one. On Monday, the 8th of April 2019, an American professor Saleem Abdulraufa, the president of Walter neurosurgical society and the Director of the Center for Cerebrovascular and Skull Base Surgery at Saint Louis University Hospital, took a speech about neurosurgery in the USA and paid the students' attenion to the role of neurosurgery and neurology in clinical practice.

On the 9th of April 2019 the Olympiad got started in the congress hall of the Sechenov university. The Dean of the Medical faculty Kinkulkina M.A., the Director of the “Academician V.I.Shumakov Federal Research Center of Transplantology and Artificial Organs”, professor Gautier S.V., the Director of the Petrovsky Russian Research Center for Surgery Belov Y.V. and the Head of the operative surgery  and topographical anatomy department  scientific adviser of the “Aesculap” student surgical society Dydykin S.S. were among the main guests of the event. The opening speech showed how meaningful for the participants the Olympiad is and how much they desire to make their best during the competitions.

27 teams, more than 600 students and fourty attendants passed registration. This year we were pleased to receive participants from abroad: Japan, Hungary, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

There were about 30 competitions of different difficulty levels during the Olympiad. The participants were to show their skills and knowledge, which not every practicing surgeon had. For example, at the competition in thoracic surgery the teams were to perform circular trachea resection for tracheoesophageal fistula. Future cardiosurgeons showed their mastership in a valve-saving operation by Davis through a mini-approach. Orthopedic session was busy with tendon suture on the flexor digitorum profundus et superficialis. There were 9 neurosurgical competitions containing different manipulation areas.

As the participants have remarked, the concurrence is getting higher and higher each year. Sometimes the results turn out to be unexpected and show a great interest among students, looking forward to getting the highest scores among other students from Russia and foreign countries. \ “Aesculap” student surgical society confirms leadership in such competitions, getting the First place. This year the second place belongs to the Far-Eastern university team (Habarovsk), the third one – to the Russian National Research Medical University.

We are sure that a round table held by the judges, organization committee members and attendants in order to change opinions and ideas concerning the future Olympiads, will be helpful for the following events.

To draw a conclusion, it would be better to recall the words of Perelman M.I.: “An operation should be performed in cases when the indications take place. It should be in time, in full measure, in a beautiful way”.

We were very glad to see such active Olympiad participants, high concurrence and winners’ joy and are looking forward to meeting you next year!