Resident and fellow participation in Thyroid and Parathyroid surgery: an ACS-NSQIP clinical outcomes analysis.

Background: The effect of decreased overall hours of training in surgical specialties is still being examined. Of particular interest is the safety of patients undergoing surgeries with trainee surgeons. The aim of this study was to identify if there were significant differences in outcomes of patients undergoing commonly performed thyroid and parathyroid surgeries when trainees were involved.

Materials And Methods: Postoperative complication rates, length of stay (LOS), and total operation time (OT) data were gathered from the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project database. The cases were identified by CPT code and were divided based on the training level of the participating resident surgeon: Junior (postgraduate year [PGY] 1-2), senior (PGY 3-5), fellow (PGY >5), as well as an attending-only group where no resident was present. We compared the clinical outcomes, LOS, and OT in each trainee group to the attending-only group as the reference.

Results: A total of 84,711 cases were identified of which 45.33% involved trainee participation. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence interval for overall, neurologic, and bleeding complications were calculated. No difference in the odds of overall patient complications or neurologic complications was observed. A decrease in the odds of bleedings complications when a junior or senior trainee was present was observed. Overall complications in operations including a junior trainee (PGY 1-2) had an OR of 1.04 (0.85, 1.29), a senior trainee (PGY 3-5) had an OR of 1.00 (0.89, 1.13), and a fellow had an OR of 0.98 (0.74, 1.31). Mean OT was found to be significantly different between attending only and junior and senior trainees. There was no significant difference in OT between fellows and attending only. LOS did not meaningfully differ across groups.

Conclusions: In three commonly performed thyroid and parathyroid operations, there is not an increased overall or neurologic complication odds when a surgical trainee is involved; there are decreased odds of a bleeding complication.