3.1.2 Perceptions about cardiothoracic surgery
Whilst many studies attempted to quantify interest amongst preclinical
and clinical medical students, junior doctors, and even core surgical
trainees, it is difficult to ascertain if such interest will ultimately
result in CT surgery being the final choice of surgery.
With only 3 included studies in Asia or Africa, the trends observed in
these studies may not reflect the overall international student
perspective of medical students about the specialty. However, in Alawad
et al. and Algethami et al., the proportion of interest is comparatively
low, being 16.50% (11) and 4.50% (5) respectively. Another important
result is the overall discrepancy between male and female interest in
the specialty, particularly at a preclinical level; men were keener and
more involved in the specialty as students.