Neurosurgical procedures performed during residency in Europe—preliminary numbers and time trends

Background Differences in the postgraduate training programs of neurosurgical residents are suspected throughout Europe. The influence of working hour restrictions by the European Working Time Directive (WTD) 2003/88/EC on the number of surgical procedures remains unclear. We designed a survey to collect information on the number of surgical procedures, performed by European neurosurgical trainees during residency. This article reports preliminary data. Methods An electronic survey was distributed among the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS) member countries by national delegates of the training committee, as well as by members of the Young Neurosurgeons’ committee. The EANS mailing list of individual members was also used for distribution. All responses received between 04/2018 and 12/2018 were considered. Results From n = 180 responses received, 42 were omitted as responders were still in residency and for 58 relevant information was missing. The final sample was n = 80, with a mean responder’s age of 43.0 years (SD 8.6) and 88.8% being male. Responses came from 16 European countries; board certification was received between the years of 1976–2018. The numbers of surgical procedures performed independently were 511 (mean, 95% confidence interval (CI) 413–610), supervised were 514 (95%CI 360–668) and assisted were 752 (95%CI 485–1019) throughout residency. More detailed numbers for specific procedure types are reported in the article. Independently performed cranial procedures outnumbered spinal procedures ( p