Revision nasal surgery after septoplasty: trainees versus trainers

Otolaryngology trainees are expected to be able to successfully perform septoplasty early in their career. An important parameter to assess the success of an operation is to look at the revision surgery rate. This study aimed to investigate the revision nasal surgery rate after septoplasty based on the grade of the primary surgeon. Retrospective review of hospital records of all patients who underwent septoplasty with or without inferior turbinate reduction over 12 years (1998–2010) in a tertiary referral centre in North-East Scotland. Patients were identified from theatre log books and were excluded if they underwent any other simultaneous nasal procedure. Data were collected on demographics, type of primary and revision surgery, grade of surgeon and duration of hospital stay. 2,168 eligible patients (70 % male, 30 % female) with a mean age of 39 years were investigated. Surgeons were divided into four categories: junior trainee (Group A), senior trainee (Group B), staff grade (Group C) and consultant (Group D). There were 753, 644, 298 and 473 patients in Groups A, B, C and D, respectively. The revision rate in Group A was 4.4 % compared to 3.2 % for Group D and this difference was not statistically significant. For their operation, patients in Group A stayed for 1.54 nights compared to 1.47 nights in Group D, the difference being insignificant. Grade of the surgeon does not appear to strongly affect the need for revision nasal surgery and our patients do not appear to be disadvantaged if operated on by trainees.