For a study, researchers sought to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on surgical volumes in the national case logs of the first graduating cohorts of urologic residents.
For graduates of academic years (AYs) 2015-2016 through 2020-2021, the national aggregated Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education urology resident case logs were retrieved. A 1-way analysis of variance was used to analyze case volume changes between AYs for monitored index categories. The variations in the average number of instances documented between the pre-COVID and COVID-affected resident cohorts were then evaluated using 2-tailed student t-tests.
During the time period under review, graduating urology residents documented an average of 1,322 (SD 24.8) cases. There were several statistical variations in total cases between AYs, but pediatric majors were the only index group where there was a statistically significant drop in cases from a COVID-affected AY compared to a pre-COVID AY (53.9 vs. 63.0, P=.004) and AY 2018-2019 (53.9 vs. 61.2, P=.04). Pediatric minor (123.4 vs. 117.5, P=.049) and pediatric major (61.4 vs. 56.8, P=.003) case averages fell for the COVID-affected cohort of residents when combined into pre- and COVID-affected cohorts, while no adult index category declined.
The adult index category surgery volume for graduating urology residents through the pandemic remained maintained. There was a statistical decline in pediatric cases with dubious clinical significance. The possibility that some people may have negatively influenced their resident education is still a worry.
Reference: goldjournal.net/article/S0090-4295(22)00508-8/fulltext
