Do Individual Surgeon Preferences Affect Procedural Outcomes?

Surgeon preferences such as instrument and suture selection and idiosyncratic approaches to individual procedure steps have been largely viewed as minor differences in the surgical workflow. We hypothesized that idiosyncratic approaches could be quantified and shown to have measurable effects on procedural outcomes.

At the American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress, experienced surgeons volunteered to wear motion tracking sensors and be videotaped while evaluating a loop of porcine intestines to identify and repair 2 preconfigured, standardized enterotomies. Video annotation was used to identify individual surgeon preferences and motion data was used to quantify surgical actions. χ 2 analysis was used to determine whether surgical preferences were associated with procedure outcomes (bowel leak).

Surgeons' (N=255) preferences were categorized into 4 technical decisions. Three out of the 4 technical decisions (repaired injuries together, double-layer closure, corner-stitches vs no corner-stitches) played a significant role in outcomes, P <0.05. Running versus interrupted did not affect outcomes. Motion analysis revealed significant differences in average operative times (leak: 6.67 min vs no leak: 8.88 min, P =0.0004) and work effort (leak-path length=36.86 cm vs no leak-path length=49.99 cm, P =0.001). Surgeons who took the riskiest path but did not leak had better bimanual dexterity (leak=0.21/1.0 vs no leak=0.33/1.0, P =0.047) and placed more sutures during the repair (leak=4.69 sutures vs no leak=6.09 sutures, P =0.03).

Our results show that individual preferences affect technical decisions and play a significant role in procedural outcomes. Future analysis in more complex procedures may make major contributions to our understanding of contributors to procedure outcomes.