Tell others about your experiences
with TOP-Course

I attended the "The course for organ transplantation" in June 2011.
This excellent 5-day-course gives participants the opportunity to operate pigs in the OR(all kind of anastomosis....whole transplantation procedure... organ retrieval) with perfect support by the tutors and the team.
It was a great pleasure to participate in this phantastic course: nice atmosphere, perfect organization of the course by Sabine and the tutors (Stefan,Heiner and Felix) and a lot of fun. I just can highly recommend this course to all younger (transplant) surgeons.
Thank you very much!

The course for organ transplantation is state of the art teaching and learning: a relaxed atmosphere, a perfect organization, motivated tutors. The perfect mix for surgeons at any level to learn about liver and kidney transplantation at a very fair price. Thank you!

Hello everyone!

Atle Solholm (10) has already described the course very accurately. I’d like to add that the 33rd TOP-Organ Transplantation-Course I had the opportunity to attend last week was by far the most valuable one I have taken part in to date. Especially, if you consider its fair cost (Thanks, Sascha!). The tutors had all the patience needed to explain again and again difficult procedures and the organisation led by Sabine was superb. I also extremely enjoyed the international flair between residents and fellows coming from all over Europe and beyond. Most of them represented renowned transplantation centres. At the end of the day I feel confident in performing all liver & renal transplantation anastomoses. I really hope that the organ retrieval course will eventually take place, because I’d most certainly like to attend it.

Therefore, I will try to "spread the word" among all my colleagues interested in solid organ transplantation concerning the benefit they'd gain by attending this course.

Finally, I especially want to send my regards and say "thank you" to all team-2 participants and our great tutor Heiner.

Have a nice summer!

excelente es un curso ideal para todos los cirujanos que estan empezando en la cirugia de transplante lo recomiendo de todas maneras.

Что можно сказать о программе обучения TOP-COURSE? Во-первых, это огромный профессионализм всех участников обучения. Программу ведут действительно профессионалы высшей категории, которые не понаслышке знают о предмете, имеют колоссальный опыт выполняемых операций и великолепную научную подготовку. При этом подача материала и практические занятия будут доступны даже новичкам. Во-вторых - это отличная доброжелательная обстановка, внимание, готовность помочь, ответить на любой интересующий вопрос. Прекрасная организация - начиная с момента прилета в аэропорт, очень четкое спланирование расписания - за что отдельное спасибо Сабине ;))). И наконец, великолепная техническая база (тренинг-центр) с новейшим оборудованием и инструментарием. Вы не будете разочарованы! Курс действительно великолепен.

I attended the 32-th TOP course in October 2010, and I kindly recommend this course to all transplant surgeons. Excellent atmosphere, excellent organisers and teachers (Sabine, Jenz, Felix, Thomas), beautiful international friendship! I’ve already used “O’Kidi 1 Technique” in human and it works!!Thanks a lot!!

It was a great pleasure for me to participate in the 32nd TOP Course and a great opportunity to be trained at an excellent level in the field of solid organ transplantation. The TOP Course is a paradigm for an advanced training to facilitate young surgeons´careers.

I have just returned from the TOP course and can highly recommend it. It provides the opportunity to learn surgery through practice and repetition rather than from lectures alone. In addition, the course is well organised and taught with friendly yet expert tuition. Overall I would recommend it to trainees, either to gain confidence in operating or as a refresher for more experienced trainees.

Die Teilnahme am "Laparoscopic donor nephrectomy course", der dieses Jahr das erste Mal ausgerichtet wurde, kann ich nur wärmstens empfehlen. Perfekte Oprganisation, sehr gute Tutoren, praxisnahe Vorträge, angenehme Umgebung! Was will man mehr!

TOP-course september 2001 was without question the most memorable and useful teaching course I have joined! With unique location at the Grossdöllner See, and top teaching facilities close to the hotel, this is an educational oppurtinity you don`t want to miss. The international group of rather few participants sat the stage for interesting discussions, exchange of techniques and ideas, in an always good atmosphere. Even though overshadowed by the 9/11, me and my other collegue from Oslo often memorize over the stay here. Along with a rather intense programme, we had time for jogging in the wood and swimming in the lake (yes, we`re talking mid-september).
Furthermore, this course highly contribute to a common transplant identity across national and cultural barriers, not least to the ever enthusiasm and high quality instructions by the TOP team!
Thus, I warmly recommend TOP-course to anyone in their early career in transplant surgery.

I attended the TOP course last year and I warmly recommend it. It's a fantastic program in a really nice and friendly atmosphere.

It was a great experience for me, excellent trainers and a very good organisation. Thank you very much to all, who were involved in the teaching and organisation,

I attended the 28th TOP-Course in September 2008. It was a overall excellent experience, with a lot of oportunities for hands-on training of the surgical skills required for liver transplantation and multi-organ procurement. Along with the surgical training there was also an opportunity for close physiologic monitoring of the laboratory animal, with the resuscitation and drug therapy beeing provided by the students.
Add to this a wonderful scenario in the middle of nature, relaxing times at the end of the day drinking a beer and excellent dinners...
Having attended a number of other pratical courses of surgical skills with laboratory animals, I must say that the TOP-Course is really one of the best.

I have participated in a vast number of courses during the past ten to fifteen years, many of which were really good courses, courses in vascular surgery, transplantation, general surgery and thoracic surgery. But the TOP-Course surpasses every course I ever attended. While other "hands-on-courses" give you four or five hours of theory followed by three hours in the OR, the TOP-Course has only about 30 minutes theoretical "briefing" in the morning, followed by 8 or 10 hours in the OR and then 30 minutes "de-briefing" in the afternoon; and this goes on for four successive days. While in an ordinary vascular surgery course you may be allowed to make only one carotid and one aortic anastomosis during the entire course due to financial limitations, in the TOP-course you spend all day making various vascular anastomosis over and over again until you think you can do them almost blindfolded…

Another great advantage of the TOP-Course is the very tight teamwork of each group in the OR. With 15 persons divided into three groups, we had a rotation system, assigning different tasks to each member of the group. One of us had to be in charge of the anaesthesia and the fluid replacement, leaving two group members to operate in the abdomen, and two more members to operate on the neck of the pig. Whenever you got tired of what you were doing at the moment, you just changed places with one of the other group members.

When transplanting a liver from one pig to another on the last day of the course, we divided the different tasks between us, allowing one to perform the suprahepatic caval anastomosis, another to perform the infrahepatic caval anastomosis, the third one to perform the portal vein anastomosis, the fourth one the anastomosis of the common hepatic artery and the fifth member to perform the choledochal duct anastomosis. In this manner we learned to work closely together as a team, and I believe this also adds to the quality of the course.

Not only was the practical training superb, however, but the social part of the course was just as splendid as the time spent in the OR. When 15 equal-minded persons (all trainees in either urology or in transplantation), are working intensively together for five days in three groups of five persons each, you get pretty close to each other. I remember feeling like we were back in our teens, attending a summer holiday camp...

This course is highly recommended to everyone preparing for a future in the field of transplant surgery!

Fantastic course. Warmly recommend it!!

The TOP-course was really helpfull in many objectives. First it was interesting to learn more about the operative procedure of donation and transplantation for the human setting and pigs. After the course we successfully started a pig transplantation programm at our department after first lessions learned at TOP-course. I missed a bit more technical details on pancreas precurement, but otherwise the course was perfect. Nice people and place including possibility of swimming in the lake in September!
Thanks to the course team, organisation and to the sponsor.