How can trauma surgeons maintain their operative skills?

The operative experience of the dedicated trauma surgeon is declining. Much attention has focused on the operative workload of trauma surgeons as it is critical in both maintaining operative skills and promoting the interest of surgical residents in trauma careers. We examined the operative experience of our surgical service which includes trauma, emergency general surgery, and elective general surgery to analyze changes occurring over the past decade.

A retrospective study was performed by extracting data from the operative database at our Level I trauma center from January 1995 to December 2005. The cases were classified as trauma, emergency general surgery, or elective general surgery. Data were analyzed using weighted linear regression to analyze statistical significance.

Although the total number of cases performed by the trauma service remained constant, the proportion of initial operative trauma cases (<24 hours from arrival to operation) decreased from 14% to 8% (r2 = 0.91, p < 0.001) over the study period. In contrast, emergency general surgery cases increased over this time period (r2 = 0.57, p < 0.01). Elective case volume was unchanged. The majority of the waning of trauma cases was due to decreased surgery on the liver and spleen and fewer neck explorations.

Trauma operative experience decreased but emergency general surgery increased over a decade at our trauma center. It appears possible to maintain a busy operative trauma service by the inclusion of emergency general surgery consultations.