Dr. Howard Smith Reports

Should a Resident Help Do Your Kid’s Tonsil Surgery?


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Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C8AVgPHMvQV/


 While many parents of children entering a university teaching hospital for a tonsillectomy will say, “ I don’t want a student involved in my child’s surgery,” they would be making the wrong choice since the answer is YES.  A University of Buffalo study now shows that children having their tonsils removed are 40% more less likely to require an urgent post-op ER visit if a resident takes part in the surgery.


The researchers reviewed the cases of 2,051 children having tonsillectomies.  Those kids who had a resident take part in their operations were 42% less likely to require an emergency visit later on.  Even more interesting: the rate of post-op bleeding, the most dreaded tonsillectomy complication, was the same whether or not a resident took part.  Only age was a factor in such bleeding with older patients experiencing more.


If your child’s surgeon plans to include a trainee, the best bet is to welcome that young doctor to the team.  Remember that residents are in training to learn techniques from their attending.  When I and most of my colleagues operate with residents, we instruct the trainee to perform the procedure exactly as we would.  If they stray from our roadmap, we take over.


https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0196070924000991?via=ihub


#tonsillectomy #resident #bleeding #ERvisit 


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Dr. Howard Smith ReportsBy Howard G. Smith MD, AM