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Meta-Analysis
. 2022 Jan;44(1):262-274.
doi: 10.1002/hed.26900. Epub 2021 Oct 28.

Trainee participation does not adversely affect the safety of thyroid surgery: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Benjamin Kye Jyn Tan #  1 , Jaivikash Raghupathy #  1 , Harris Jun Jie Muhammad Danial Song  1 , Brian Sheng Yep Yeo  1 , Miny Samuel  2 , Anna See  3 , Rajeev Parameswaran  1   4
Affiliations
Meta-Analysis

Trainee participation does not adversely affect the safety of thyroid surgery: Systematic review and meta-analysis

Benjamin Kye Jyn Tan et al. Head Neck. 2022 Jan.

Abstract

Surgical traineeship is essential but must be safe for patients. In thyroid surgery, surgeon volume correlates with improved clinical/economic outcomes. However, it is presently unclear how far does trainee participation affect post-thyroidectomy complication rates in real-world and randomized data. We systematically searched four databases for associations of trainee participation with any post-thyroidectomy outcome. We conducted univariate meta-analyses, sensitivity analyses, and assessed publication bias qualitatively and quantitatively. We included 1 randomized and 15 observational studies from 3755 records, comprising 34 774 thyroid surgical patients. Trainee participation was associated with 12 min longer operative time, but not higher complication rates (hypoparathyroidism, recurrent laryngeal nerve palsy, hematoma, blood loss, return to operating room, hospitalization duration, readmission, and mortality). Sensitivity, publication bias, and multivariate analyses did not change our findings. Real-world and limited randomized data suggest that trainee participation in thyroid surgery is safe, given adequate consultant supervision and appropriate case selection.

Keywords: evidence-based medicine; meta-analysis; surgical complications; surgical education; thyroidectomy.

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References

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