New endocrine fellowship programs do not decrease the endocrine surgery experience of residents in co-located general surgery programs

Abstract

BackgroundNew pediatric and vascular surgical fellowship programs decrease resident operative experience in those subspecialties in co-located general surgery programs.After 2 decades of increases, the mean number of endocrine surgery cases performed by general surgery residents nationally has decreased since 2010 to 2011. We hypothesized that new endocrine surgery fellowship programs lead to a decrease in the number of endocrine surgery cases performed by co-located general surgery residents and may be a contributing factor in the recent national decline in endocrine surgery cases performed by general surgery residents. MethodsEndocrine surgery fellowship programs associated with a single, Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education–accredited general surgery program that have completed training of 1 fellow by the 2014–2015 academic year were identified. Endocrine surgery cases performed by general surgery residents who completed co-located general surgery programs from 2002 to 2003 through 2017 to 2018 were recorded. Descriptive statistics are shown as mean ± standard deviation. Statistical significance was calculated using the Mann-Whitney U Test. ResultsIn the 13 general surgery programs with 5 years of case log data after the matriculation of the first fellow, the mean number of total endocrine surgery cases/resident increased from 47 ± 23 in year 0 to 57 ± 25 in year 5 (z-score = 2.53; P < .05). ConclusionNew endocrine surgery fellowship programs do not decrease the endocrine surgery cases performed by general surgery residents and have not contributed to the national decline in endocrine surgery cases by general surgery residents.