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Residents as primary surgeons do not affect the complication rate in reduction mammaplasties and mastopexies—a 10-year single-center experience

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European Journal of Plastic Surgery Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract 

Background

Reduction mammaplasty and mastopexy are an ideal teaching opportunity for residents. While residents benefit from teaching operations, it is essential to evaluate whether this poses risks for the patient. The purpose of this study is to determine the impact of hands-on training for residents as primary surgeons in reduction mammaplasties and mastopexies.

Methods

The data of 1103 patients who underwent surgery between January 2000 and December 2010 at Innsbruck Medical University were extracted and analyzed by training status of the primary surgeon.

Results

A total of 833 patients were included in the study. The overall complication rate was 4.9%. For surgeries conducted by specialists, the rate was 4.8% and for those performed by residents 5.1% (p = 0.85). No significant difference in complication rates between senior residents and junior residents was found (p = 0.58). Analysis for major and minor complications demonstrated no statistically significant difference between specialists or residents (p = 0.054). A three-way comparison between specialists, senior and junior residents showed significantly more major complications occurring in the junior resident cohort (p = 0.018).

Conclusions

This study demonstrates that having a resident under supervision as a primary surgeon does not increase the complication rate, establishing hands-on residents’ training in plastic surgery as a safe training method.

Level of evidence: Level III, Risk/Prognostic.

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Funding

The authors declare that no funds, grants, or other support were received during the preparation of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Academic Teaching Hospital Feldkirch, Feldkirch, Austria

    Elena V. Scharner & Gabriel Djedovic

  2. Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Innsbruck Medical University, Anichstr. 35, 6020, Innsbruck, Austria

    Faik Muslic, Evi M. Morandi, Christoph Tasch & Gerhard Pierer

Authors
  1. Elena V. Scharner
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  2. Faik Muslic
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  3. Evi M. Morandi
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  4. Christoph Tasch
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  5. Gerhard Pierer
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  6. Gabriel Djedovic
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection, and analysis were performed by E.S. and G.D. The first draft of the manuscript was written by E.S. and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Evi M. Morandi.

Ethics declarations

Ethical approval

Due to the retrospective character of data acquisition, a waiver of review was granted by the ethics review board of the Medical University of Innsbruck at the time point of data collection and analysis.

Consent to participate

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Consent for publication

As all data included in the publication was pseudo-anonymized, consent to publish was not required.

Conflict of interest

Elena V. Scharner, Faik Muslic, Evi M. Morandi, Christoph Tasch, Gerhard Pierer, and Gabriel Djedovic declare no conflict of interest.

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Scharner, E.V., Muslic, F., Morandi, E.M. et al. Residents as primary surgeons do not affect the complication rate in reduction mammaplasties and mastopexies—a 10-year single-center experience. Eur J Plast Surg 46, 219–226 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-022-01994-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00238-022-01994-7

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