Impact of COVID-19 on operating assignments in residency training of endocrine surgery: A retrospective cohort study.

Abstract

PURPOSE:

Airborne pandemics illustrate a significant problem in training grounds. From the endocrine surgery point of view, we scrutinized the impact of Covid-19 on general surgery residency training in our university hospital.

METHODS:

The number of endocrine procedure curves was forecasted using the expert modeler in a time series model from March to September 2020 based on data from previous years. We then compared the estimation curves to actual numbers.

RESULTS:

There were 1340 resident participants in thyroid procedures, 405 in parathyroid procedures, 65 in other neck procedures, and 304 in adrenal procedures. In 884 of the endocrine procedures, the operating surgeon was a resident. The median experience of operating residents in endocrine procedures was 3.2 years (interquartile range 2.7-3.6) before the impact and 3.8 years (interquartile range 3.1-4.1) after it (p = 0.023). The monthly number of actual procedures with at least one resident participation in the Covid-19 period was significantly lower (8.7 ± 7.5 vs. 19.9 ± 3.7, p = 0.012) than the forecasted numbers. There were no semi-autonomous operating chief residents, although we expected a moderate level (0 actual vs. 0.5 ± 0.2 predicted, p = 0.002).

CONCLUSION:

This study clearly represents sustainability in surgical training and includes usual trends. Essential endocrine surgical procedures the pandemic disrupted the most were the treatment of thyroid and parathyroid diseases. Covid-19 reduced our surgical volume and resulted in delays in training. A full-scale disaster plan is necessary for possible crises threatening surgical education.

• Authors: Demet Sarıdemir Ünal, Volkan Doğru, Ali Avanaz, Cumhur Arıcı
• Journal: Asian journal of surgery (Asian J Surg) Vol. 46 Issue 10 Pg. 4283-4289 (Oct 2023) ISSN: 0219-3108 [Electronic] Netherlands
• PMID: 36933961 (Publication Type: Journal Article)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2023 Asian Surgical Association and Taiwan Robotic Surgery Association. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Topics

• Humans
• Internship and Residency
• Retrospective Studies
• COVID-19 (epidemiology)
• Endocrine Surgical Procedures
• Surgeons
• General Surgery
• Clinical Competence