Trends in the Traditional Cardiothoracic Surgery Resident Operative Experience for Cardiac Cases: An Analysis of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education Case Logs

ABSTRACT Objective To determine if the changing cardiac landscape has affected traditional cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) resident case volume, particularly cardiac case volume. Methods The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) case logs for traditional CTS residents from 2016-2019 were reviewed. Using linear and non-linear regression, trends in the annual volume and proportion of CTS operations were examined. Results Overall, the average number of total and category-specific CTS resident cases have increased. However, in general, the proportion of the thoracic surgery cases has been increasing, and the proportion of cardiac surgery cases has been decreasing. Particularly, the proportion of coronary atherosclerosis (-0.2546 per 100 cases/year, p Conclusion The overall CTS resident operative experience has increased over the last several years, albeit cardiac cases increasing slower than thoracic cases. The analysis reveals that cardiac operative volume has been asymmetrically allocated to cardiac track residents indicating a greater specialization of the tracks. Annual evaluation of CTS resident case volume will give essential insight into the field.