Concern has been raised about the effects of restricted work hours on patient care and surgical training among the medical community in the US. A study published in the Archives of Surgery this week found that surgical compliactions have fallen after the restrictions on work hours introduced in a large teaching hospital in California.
Researchers studied the medical records of 2470 patients who had laparoscopic gallbladder surgery. Half of the operation were performed before the 80-hour restriction on the surgical residents and the other half were after the change in hours. They found that after the shorter weeks, fewer patients had bile duct injuries, a common problem frequenetly caused by technical error. The author said the study is "the first that has shown there is improvement in outcomes in this new era" although it is unclear why the complication rates decreased.
Source: "Decreased Bile Duct Injury Rate During Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy in the Era of the 80-Hour Resident Workweek" Arch Surg. 2008;143(9):847-851.
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