profession
Resident involvement in surgeries is safe, study says
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Aug. 27, 2012
Allowing residents to participate in surgeries does not significantly increase risks to patients, says a study in the September Annals of Surgery.
Researchers evaluated 30-day outcomes on 60,711 procedures from 2005 to 2007, including 40,474 that involved residents. The cases were categorized by various factors, such as patient’s age, sex, surgical procedure and risk factors. They found a small increase in surgical complications in cases involving residents (7.5% versus 6.7%). The increase was due mostly to superficial wound infections, the study said (link).
Resident involvement also meant slightly longer surgeries, averaging 122 minutes compared with 97 minutes with no residents. Procedures in which first- and second-year residents were involved had lower overall complications compared with those where higher-level residents were present, due to the increased complexity of procedures that residents participate in as they become more experienced, the study said.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2012/08/27/prbf0827.htm.
