Does residents' involvement in mastectomy cases increase operative cost? If so, who should bear the cost?

Introduction: It is a widely held belief that surgical residents' involvement in operative cases increases operative time and costs. However, there is little published data regarding the veracity of this belief, and there is poor documentation of the actual costs associated with involving surgical residents in operative cases. This report represents a retrospective analysis of the additional cost associated with involving surgical residents of all training years in mastectomy cases over a 6-y period.