title: Loss of liver transplant surgeons into alternate career paths.
abstract: In Germany, long-term commitment of surgeons to transplantation is rare. Most surgeons leave transplant surgery after a short stint and follow careers in other surgical fields. This rapid turnover of liver transplant surgeons may result in poor resource utilization and potentially compromise patient safety. In this report, we have analyzed the caseload and the careers of 25 surgeons in liver transplantation over a period of 22 years. The median time in liver transplantation was short. Of all surgeons who engaged in liver transplantation, the median time was 3.5 years. Surgeons who completed their training remained in the field for 7 years. Surgeons who prematurely stopped their training remained for 2 years. Individual total caseloads of transplant surgeons were relatively low. The median number of procedures was 40 for all surgeons, 153 for currently active surgeons, 51 for surgeons who completed training, 27 for surgeons currently in training, and a median of four liver transplantations for surgeons who prematurely stopped liver transplantation. The vast majority (75%) of surgeons prematurely quit liver transplantation to follow alternate surgical careers. Structural changes in academic transplant surgery have to be made to facilitate long-term commitments of interested surgeons and to avoid "futile" transplant careers.
authors: Department of Surgery, University of Munich, Großhadern, Germany.
authors: Michael
authors: M
authors: Thomas
authors: Martin
authors: M
authors: Angele
authors: Manfred
authors: M
authors: Stangl
authors: Markus
authors: M
authors: Rentsch
authors: Sebastian
authors: S
authors: Pratschke
authors: Joachim
authors: J
authors: Andrassy
authors: Karl-Walter
authors: KW
authors: Jauch
authors: Markus
authors: M
authors: Guba
mesh_terms: D000046:Academic Medical Centers; D002321:Career Choice; D013502:General Surgery / Q000193:education*; D005858:Germany; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D016031:Liver Transplantation / Q000193:education*; D013997:Time Factors; D016526:Workload
keywords: academic surgeons; career satisfaction; careers in transplantation; surgical training in transplantation