Surgical activity of first-year Canadian neurosurgical residents.
BACKGROUND
Surgical activity is probably the most important component of surgical training. During the first year of surgical residency, there is an early opportunity for the development of surgical skills, before disparities between the skill sets of residents increase in future years. It is likely that surgical skill is related to operative volumes. There are no published guidelines that quantify the number of surgical cases required to achieve surgical competency. The aim of this study was to describe the current trends in surgical activity in a recent cohort of first-year Canadian neurosurgical trainees.


METHODS
This study utilized retrospective database review and survey methodology to describe the current state of surgical training for first-year neurosurgical trainees. A committee of five residents designed this survey in an effort to capture factors that may influence the operative activity of trainees.


RESULTS
Nine out of a cohort of 20 first-year Canadian neurosurgical trainees that began training in July of 2008 participated in the study. The median number of cases completed by a resident during the initial three month neurosurgical rotation was 66, within which the trainee was identified as the primary surgeon in 12 cases. Intracranial hemorrhage and cerebrospinal fluid diversion procedures were the most common operations to have the trainee as primary surgeon.


CONCLUSIONS
Based on this pilot study, it appears that the operative activity of Canadian first-year residents is at least equivalent to the residents of other studied training systems with respect to volume and diversity of surgical activity.
Division of Neurosurgery, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada.
Aria
A
Fallah
Shanil
S
Ebrahim
Faizal
F
Haji
Christopher
C
Gillis
Fady
F
Girgis
Kathryn
K
Howe
George M
GM
Ibrahim
Julia
J
Radic
Mehdi
M
Shahideh
M Christopher
MC
Wallace
D002170:Canada; D002983:Clinical Competence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003625:Data Collection; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009493:Neurosurgery / Q000193:education*