Resident Involvement in Arthroscopic Knee Surgery Is Not Associated With Increased Short-term Risk to Patients

Whether resident involvement in surgical procedures affects intra- and/or postoperative outcomes is controversial.

The purpose of this study was to compare operative time, adverse events, and readmission rate for arthroscopic knee surgery cases with and without resident involvement. We hypothesized that resident involvement would not negatively affect these variables.

Cohort study; Level of evidence, 3.

A retrospective review of the prospectively maintained National Surgical Quality Improvement Program was performed. Patients who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery between 2005 and 2012 were identified. Multivariate Poisson regression with robust error variance was used to compare the rates of postoperative adverse events and readmission within 30 days between cases with and without resident involvement. Multivariate linear regression was used to compare operative time between cohorts. Because of multiple statistical comparisons, a Bonferroni correction was used, and statistical significance was set at P < .004.

A total of 29,539 patients who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery were included in the study, and 11.3% of these patients had a resident involved with the case. The overall rate of adverse events was 1.62%. On multivariate analysis, resident involvement was not associated with increased rates of adverse events or readmission. Resident cases had a mean 6-minute increase in operative time (P < .001).

Overall, resident involvement in arthroscopic knee surgery was not associated with an increased risk of adverse events or readmission. Resident involvement was associated with only a mean increased operative time of 6 minutes, a difference that is not likely to be clinically significant. These results support the safety of resident involvement with arthroscopic knee surgery.