The impact of resident involvement on tonsillectomy outcomes and surgical time

Posttonsillectomy hemorrhage can be life-threatening, so we investigated whether patients are at increased risk with an inexperienced surgeon. There is scant information on how surgical experience affects outcomes in pediatric tonsillectomy. We hypothesized that supervised residents would have longer operative times but no difference in complication rates compared to attending surgeons.

Retrospective case series of children who underwent tonsillectomy from July 2014 to April 2017 at a tertiary pediatric medical center.

We assessed outcomes and operative times, based on the primary surgeon's level of training, for children (14 months to 22 years) who underwent tonsillectomy.

A total of 7,606 children were included (mean age 7.0 ± 4.1 years, 51% female) with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 18.6 ± 5.48 kg/m² ; 76% were white; and 13% were black. Residents assisted with tonsillectomy in 43% of cases. The readmission rate (5%-6%) was not different (P = 0.48) by level of experience. Similarly, return to the operating room for control of hemorrhage (3.3%-3.5%) did not differ by level of experience (P = 0.95). The median procedure time for adenotonsillectomy was shortest for attendings (9 minutes), followed by fellows (13 minutes), and residents (14 minutes, P < 0.0001). Among residents, time for adenotonsillectomy decreased significantly with each increasing year of training (P < 0.0001) from postgraduate year (PGY) 1 (17 minutes), to PGY2 (15 minutes), to PGY3 (14 minutes), and to PGY4 (12.5 minutes).

Attending surgeons completed tonsillectomy more quickly, and operative times decreased with increasing experience level. However, there was no difference in readmission or postoperative hemorrhage rates between residents and attending surgeons.

4 Laryngoscope, 130:2481-2486, 2020.