Resident University of Illinois College of Medicine DeForest, Wisconsin, United States
Introduction: Neurosurgical residents must fulfill minimum surgical case participation requirements as determined by the American College of Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). Advancements in medical technology and improvements in surgical techniques are continually altering the experiences gained during residency and the competencies of graduating residents. Prior studies have used resident case logs as a surrogate to assess resident training in several surgical field. This study aims to determine how neurosurgical residents’ vascular training has been affected by the national shift away from open techniques toward endovascular approaches.
Methods: Resident case logs from 2016 to 2021 were retrospectively reviewed to determine open vascular and endovascular procedure participation trends. Linear regression analyses were performed to analyze changes in case numbers logged over the study period.
Results: Between 2016 and 2021, open vascular cases decreased at a rate of -2 cases/year (r2 = 093, p < 0.05), while endovascular procedure participation increased at a rate of +6 cases/year (r2 = 0.75, p = 0.03). Resident participation in endovascular aneurysms procedures increased significantly at a rate of +2 cases/year (r2 = 0.68, p = 0.04) and the average number of open aneurysm procedures decreased at a rate of -2 cases/year (r2 = 0.95, p < 0.05).
Conclusion : Despite a decline in the number of open vascular procedures logged by graduating neurosurgical residents from 2016 to 2021, there was an increase in total vascular procedures due to a substantial rise in endovascular procedure participation.
