Trends in Pediatric Surgery Operative Volume among Residents and Fellows: Improving the Experience for All

The ACGME requires general surgery residents (GSR) to perform 20 pediatric surgery cases as part of the total 750 cases before graduation.

We queried the ACGME General Surgery (1999 to 2014) and Pediatric Surgery (2003 to 2014) Case Logs for all pediatric operations performed during training. Means (±SD) and medians (10(th):90(th) percentiles) were compared, and R(2) was calculated for all trends.

The number of pediatric surgery fellows (PSF) increased 63% (23 to 39; R(2) = 0.82), while GSR numbers increased 12% (989 to 1,105; R(2) = 0.77). Total and average pediatric surgery case volume for GSR decreased from 39,309 to 32,156 (R(2) = 0.90) and 39.7 ± 13 to 29.1 ± 10 (R(2) = 0.91), respectively. Meanwhile, average PSF case volume increased from 980 ± 208 to 1,137 ± 202 (R(2) = 0.83). These trends persisted for inguinal/umbilical hernia (GSR 22.1 ± 13 to 15.6 ± 10; R(2) = 0.93; PSF 90.5 ± 17.6 to 104.4 ± 20.7; R(2) = 0.34), pyloric stenosis (GSR 3.9 ± 3 to 2.8 ± 3; R(2) = 0.60; PSF 29.6 ± 15 to 39.7 ± 16.8; R(2) = 0.69), and intestinal atresia (GSR 1.3 ± 2 to 1.1 ± 2; R(2) = 0.34; PSF 4.3 ± 4 to 11.8 ± 8; R(2) = 0.21). The mean number of GSR pediatric operations diminished for both junior (37.1 ± 20 to 27.3 ± 16; R(2) = 0.88) and chief (2.6 ± 5 to 1.7 ± 5; R(2) = 0.75) years. Teaching cases in pediatric surgery decreased at all levels. Although the percentage of GSR teaching cases performed during chief years fell modestly (6.6% to 4.7%; R(2) = 0.53), median teaching cases dropped from 2 (0:11 [10(th):90(th) percentiles]) to zero (0:0 [10(th):90(th) percentiles]). Mean PSF teaching cases declined (100.7 ± 396 to 44.5 ± 42; R(2) = 0.72), while the percentage of operations that were teaching cases decreased more sharply (10.3% to 3.5%; R(2) = 0.82).

Total pediatric surgery cases and PSF operative volume have increased, while GSR operative volume has decreased. Opportunities may exist to increase resident participation while providing further teaching opportunities for GSR, improving the quality of both resident and fellow training.