The Effect of Surgeon Experience on Short- to Medium-Term Complication Rate Following Operative Fixation of Acetabular Fractures

Abstract

Operative management of acetabular fractures is technically challenging, but there is little data regarding how surgeon experience affects outcomes. Previous efforts have focused only on reduction quality in a single surgeon series. We hypothesized that increasing surgeon experience would be associated with improved acetabular surgical outcomes in general. Retrospective cohort study. Urban academic level-I trauma center. Seven hundred ninety-five patients who underwent an open reduction internal fixation for an acetabular fracture. There was a significant association between surgeon experience and certain outcomes, specifically reoperation rate (16.9% overall), readmission rate (13.9% overall), and reduction quality. Deep infection rate (9.7% overall) and secondary displacement rate (3.7% overall) were not found to have a significant association with surgeon experience. For reoperation rate, the time until 50% peak performance was 2.4 years in practice. Surgeon experience had a significant association with reoperation rate, quality of reduction, and readmission rate after open reduction internal fixation of acetabular fractures. Other patient outcomes were not found to be associated with surgeon experience. Prognostic Level III. See Instructions for Authors for a complete description of levels of evidence.