The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the surgical training volume in the North Denmark Region: a cohort study.

BACKGROUND

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on healthcare systems worldwide. During the lock-down periods most elective surgical procedures were postponed in Denmark. It is currently unknown whether these periods of lock-down caused a substantial decline in the total number of surgeries performed during the pandemic, and whether this has impacted surgical training of residents in Denmark. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on the surgical education of residents in North Denmark Region.

METHODS

Data was collected from three specific surgical procedures - herniotomies, cholecystectomies and appendectomies (the index procedures), from January 1st, 2019 to December 31st, 2021 in the North Denmark Region (NDR) of Denmark. Surgical procedures were furthermore divided into "training surgeries", i.e., procedures performed by a resident, who is still undergoing surgical training to become a certificated surgeon and "non-training surgeries", i.e., procedures performed by a qualified surgeon, who has already finished surgical training and is honored with surgical certificate. The total number of the index procedures, as well as the total and proportion of training surgeries were measured to identify the pattern of changes during COVID-19 pandemics and its potential impact on the education of surgical trainees.

RESULTS

A total of 8,939 index procedures was performed during this period in the NDR. The overall number of index procedures decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic from 3,099 in 2019 to 2,861 in 2021. However, it was found that total number of index procedures performed by surgical trainees increased from 875 in 2019 to 1,307 in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic lock-down periods resulted in a statistically significant reduction in activities of total cholecystectomies and herniotomies and milder reduction of total appendectomies. However, the lock-down periods did not significantly affect training surgeries.

CONCLUSIONS

The COVID-19 pandemic did not have a negative impact on the number of the index procedures performed by surgical trainees in the NDR. Thus, this study was not able to prove any negative effect of the pandemic on the surgical training volume.