Dr. Howard Smith Oncall

Vidcast:  https://www.instagram.com/p/C8AVgPHMvQV/  While many parents of children entering a university teaching hospital for a tonsillectomy will say, “ I don’t want a student involved in my child’s surgery,” they would be making the wrong choice since the answer is YES.  A University of Buffalo study now shows that children having their tonsils removed are 40% more less likely to require an urgent post-op ER visit if a resident takes part in the surgery. The researchers reviewed the cases of 2,051 children having tonsillectomies.  Those kids who had a resident take part in their operations were 42% less likely to require an emergency visit later on.  Even more interesting: the rate of post-op bleeding, the most dreaded tonsillectomy complication, was the same whether or not a resident took part.  Only age was a factor in such bleeding with older patients experiencing more. If your child’s surgeon plans to include a trainee, the best bet is to welcome that young doctor to the team.  Remember that residen