Surgical outcome for resident and attending surgeons
By Elliot J. Sussman, MD; John N. Kastanis, MBA; William Feigin, MBA; Harry M. Rosen, PhD
We asked whether surgical process and outcome differ for physicians in postgraduate training supervised by attending surgeons compared with attending surgeons alone. All appendectomies performed during a 2 year period in a 320 bed voluntary hospital where either the admitting diagnosis or the preoperative diagnosis suggested acute appendicitis were included in the study. Data were abstracted from medical records and pathology reports. One hundred fifty-four cases of primary appendectomy were reviewed. In 97 cases, 1 of 9 attending physicians was listed as chief surgeon; in 57 cases, 1 of 15 resident physicians was listed as chief surgeon.