Anesthesia residents’ training and start time delays in operating room

Background: Education is the main mission of teaching hospitals, but the residents’ learning in acquiring new techniques does interfere in the overall treatment process of patients. Studies pertaining to the effect of anesthesia residents’ training in operating room on treatment procedures have reported conflicting results. Therefore, this study was performed to investigate the effects of anesthesia residents’ training on start time operative delays. Methods: This cohort study was done in neurosurgical operating room, Imam Khomei-ni Hospital, Tehran, Iran during 2010-2013 on a population study comprising of sec-ond year anesthesia residents. Patients were classified into three groups with 30 cases in each one according to the anesthetic team. Group I: one anesthesiologist in charge of two operating rooms and two anesthesia assistants; Group II: one anesthesiologist in charge of one operating room and one assistant; Group III: one anesthesiologist with-out an assistant. Patients in these groups were compared in terms of American society of anaesthesiologists (ASA) class, induction difficulties and type of surgery. Studied variables included :1) Interval between the patient lying on the bed to till anesthesia, 2) the time devoted to teaching residents, 3) time from the start of anesthesia until the start of surgery. An observer that was blinded to the type of intervention and the study design, recorded the times. Results: ASA class (P= 0.94), induction difficulties (P= 0.66) and type of surgery (spinal cord or brain operation) (P= 0.41) were not statistically different between patients in groups. Preoperative preparation time for the first group (23.5±8.1 min) was longer than the other two groups (21.5±6.2 min and 15.8±9.1 min), respectively (P= 0.001). Differences between the times from start of anesthesia to surgeries in three groups, based on ASA class and type of surgery were not significant (P> 0.05). There was no re-lationship between the times devoted to teaching residents in the first and second groups (P> 0.05). Conclusion: Anesthesia residents’ training in neurosurgery operating room may in-crease the time required for preparing for surgery, but this time expended is hardly of any significance