How much and what type: analysis of the first year of the acute care surgery operative case log.
BACKGROUND
A case log was created by the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma Acute Care Surgery (ACS) committee to track trainee operative experiences, allowing them to enter their cases in the form of Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) codes. We hypothesized that the number of cases an ACS trainee performed would be similar to the expectations of a fifth-year general surgery resident and that the current list of essential and desired cases (E/D list) would accurately reflect cases done by ACS trainees.


METHODS
The database was queried from July 1, 2011, to June 30, 2012. Trainees were classified as those in American Association for the Surgery of Trauma-accredited fellowships (ACC) and those in ACS fellowships not accredited (non-ACC). CPT codes were mapped to the E/D list. Cases entered manually were individually reviewed and assigned a CPT code if possible or listed as "noncodable." To compensate for nonoperative rotations and noncompliance, case numbers were analyzed both annually and monthly to estimate average case numbers for all trainees. In addition, case logs of trainees were compared with the E/D list to assess how well it reflected actual trainee experience.


RESULTS
Eighteen ACC ACS and 11 non-ACC ACS trainees performed 16.4 (12.6) cases per month compared with 15.7 (14.2) cases for non-ACC ACS fellows (p = 0.71). When annualized, trainees performed, on average, 195 cases per year. Annual analysis led to similar results. The E/D list captured only approximately 50% of the trainees' operative experience. Only 77 cases were categorized as pediatric.


CONCLUSIONS
ACS trainees have substantial operative experience averaging nearly 200 major cases during their ACS year. However, high variability exists in the number of essential or desirable cases being performed with approximately 50% of the fellows' operative experience falling outside the E/D list of cases. Modification of the fellows' operative experience and/or the rotation requirements seems to be needed to provide experience in E/D cases.
From the Department of Surgery (C.J.D.), Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia; Department of Surgery (T.M.D.), VCU Medical Center, Richmond, Virginia; Department of Surgery (G.J.J.), Denver Health Medical Center, Denver, Colorado; Department of Surgery (L.D.B.), Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia; Department of Surgery (J.W.M.), Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center, Winston-Salem, North Carolina; and Department of Surgery (J.J.F.), University of Nevada School of Medicine, Las Vegas, Nevada.
Christopher J
CJ
Dente
Therese M
TM
Duane
Gregory J
GJ
Jurkovich
L D
LD
Britt
J Wayne
JW
Meredith
John J
JJ
Fildes
D000068:Accreditation; D000574:American Medical Association; D002983:Clinical Competence; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004503:Education, Medical, Graduate; D004630:Emergencies; D005257:Fellowships and Scholarships; D005260:Female; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000193:education; D014194:Traumatology / Q000193:education*; D014481:United States; D016526:Workload / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000601:surgery