Longitudinal trends in volume of oculoplastic procedures without ACGME minimum requirements among United States ophthalmology residents: an ACGME case log analysis

PurposeTo our knowledge, there have been no previous reports that investigate trends in ophthalmology residents' exposure to oculoplastic procedures without Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) minimum requirements. To fill this knowledge gap, we investigated publicly available ACGME ophthalmology residency case logs from 2009 to 2021.MethodsNational resident averages and standard deviations were collected for the following oculoplastic procedures without minimum ACGME requirements: eye removal and implant, lacrimal surgery, other orbital surgery (e.g. orbitotomy), tarsorrhaphy, entropion/ectropion repair, temporal artery biopsy, and other oculoplastic surgery. We also collated average yearly surgical volumes of all oculoplastic procedures, "Total Oculoplastic Surgery," which includes procedures with minimum requirements and procedures without requirements. Finally, we collected the average yearly volumes of all ophthalmic procedures. Linear regressions were used to characterize trends in resident oculoplastic surgical volume.ResultsWe provide evidence that the average yearly volumes of all but one oculoplastic procedure without ACGME minimum requirements have been decreasing. The decreases in volume for these procedures are driven by residents having fewer cases both as primary surgeon and as assistant. In addition, while the total number of ophthalmic procedures logged by residents on average increased (beta = 7.519, p = 0.0163), the average volume of total oculoplastic procedures did not demonstrate any statistically significant trends.ConclusionsVolumes of oculoplastic procedures without ACGME minimum requirements between 2009 and 2021 have been decreasing among ophthalmology residents.