When surgeons have larger case volumes and more years of experience, their patients' outcomes improve, according to a study in the Annals of Surgery.
Researchers analyzed results of 57 studies on surgeon performance. Forty-four of those studies found that increased case volume was associated with significantly improved patient health outcomes. Eleven studies found that increased years of experience was also associated with better outcomes.
"Increasing surgical case volume and years of practice are associated with improved performance, in a procedure-specific manner," the authors concluded.
However, some of the analyzed studies showed a "plateau phase" where adding years of experience was not associated with improvement in outcomes, and three studies even found some surgeon's performance deteriorated after that plateau phase.
"Performance may deteriorate toward the end of a surgeon's career," the authors added.