Total elbow arthroplasty cases involving orthopaedic residents do not affect short-term postoperative complications.

Background: Impact of resident participation on short-term postoperative outcomes after total elbow arthroplasty has not been studied. The aim was to investigate whether resident participation affects postoperative complication rates, operative time, and length of stay.

Methods: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program registry was queried from 2006 to 2012 for patients undergoing total elbow arthroplasty. A 1:1 propensity score match was performed to match resident cases to attending-only cases. Comorbidities, surgical time, and short-term (30-day) postoperative complications were compared between groups. Multivariate Poisson regression was used to compare the rates of postoperative adverse events between groups.

Results: After propensity score match, 124 cases (50% with resident participation) were included. Adverse event rate after surgery was 18.5%. On multivariate analysis, there were no significant differences between attending-only cases and resident involved cases, with regards to short-term major complications, minor complications, or any complications (all  > 0.071). Total operative time was similar between cohorts (149.16 vs. 165.66 min;  = 0.157). No difference was observed in the length of hospital stay (2.95 vs. 2.6 days),  = 0.399.

Discussion: Resident participation during total elbow arthroplasty is not associated with increased risk for short-term medical or surgical postoperative complications or operative efficiency.