Elsevier

World Neurosurgery

Volume 154, October 2021, Pages e428-e436
World Neurosurgery

Original Article
A Tale of Two Cities: Residents’ Operative Experience in the United Kingdom and Germany During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wneu.2021.07.053Get rights and content

Background

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had a detrimental effect on residents’ operative training. Our aim was to identify the proportion of procedures performed by residents across 2 neurosurgical centers (1 in the United Kingdom and 1 in Germany) during the pandemic-affected months of March 2020–May 2020, inclusive, compared with March 2019–May 2019, inclusive.

Methods

All neurosurgical procedures performed at the United Kingdom and German institutions, between March 1, 2019 and May 31, 2019 (pre-COVID months) and March 1, 2020 and May 31, 2020 (COVID months), were extracted and operative notes evaluated. Statistical analysis was performed on SPSS version 22.

Results

There was a statistically significant reduction in operative volume in the United Kingdom center from the pre-COVID months to the COVID months (χ2(5) = 84.917; P < 0.001) but no significant difference in the operative volume in the German center (P = 0.61). A Mann-Whitney U test showed a statistically significant difference in the volume of residents operating in the COVID months compared with pre-COVID months in both United Kingdom and German centers (P < 0.001). The average number of procedures performed by residents in the United Kingdom center as the primary surgeon decreased from 82 to 72 per month (pre-COVID vs. COVID months), whereas German residents’ operating volume increased from 68 to 89 per month (pre-COVID vs. COVID months).

Conclusions

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly reduced the volume of operating by neurosurgical residents in the United Kingdom center, whereas residents in the German center performed more procedures compared with 2019. This finding may reflect variations in national practice on maintaining surgical activities and provision of critical care beds during the first wave of the pandemic.

Key words

COVID-19
Neurosurgery
Pandemics
Residents
Surgical education

Abbreviations and Acronyms

COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019
CSF
Cerebrospinal fluid

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Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that the article content was composed in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Markus Holling and Surash Surash contributed equally to this study.

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