Learning curve of tonsillectomy

To determine the time required to sufficiently educate a well-trained surgeon to perform tonsillectomy. From July 1, 2000 to June 30, 2008, we analyzed 110 patients who underwent bilateral tonsillectomy. All the procedures were performed by 16 ENT surgeons trained in the same tertiary referral medical center during their residency. This training included a 4-year training program before 2002, and a 5-year training program thereafter. We stratified the patients into groups according to each surgeon’s residency year at the time the operations were performed. Operation time, estimated blood loss and length of hospital stay of these patients were compared by the surgeon’s residency year and by different training program of residency. There was a trend of decreased operation time in the senior year of residency, especially for 5th year surgeons, without reaching statistical significance. When comparing different training program, the operation time was statistically shorter in the 5-year training program than in the 4-year training program. However, no difference was noted in estimated blood loss and hospital stay length. The operation time of residents in the 5-year training program was shorter than that of residents in the 4-year training program, which implies that extending the training program by one year may improve the quality of training.