How many cases as 1st surgeon does an average orthopaedic surgery resident in the US graduate with?

[medstudent EU]

How many cases as 1st surgeon does an average orthopaedic surgery resident in the US graduate with? And how many 1st assists do you have by that time? I understand that the case diversity differs from program to proram, but what would the rough distribution be between trauma/elective orthopaedics?​

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[orthojuniorfaculty]

I'd say that the average number of cases is between 1500 and 2000, with more procedures than that (maybe 2500-3500) if you allow for multiple procedure codes per surgery.

The ACGME has minimums for a group of orthopaedic surgeries, which they expect programs to allow for all residents to complete. It isn't very difficult for most programs to reach these levels:
ACL reconstruction: 10
Forearm/Wrist (like distal radius fractures): 20
Hip fractures: 30
Humerus fractures in gets (supracondylar fractures): 5
Knee arthroscopy: 30
Shoulder arthroscopy: 20
Spine decompression/fusion: 15
Oncology cases: 10
Pediatric cases (of all types): 200
Carpal tunnel release: 10
Femur and tibia fractures (like, intramedullary nailing): 25
Ankle/Hindfoot arthrodesis: 5
Ankle fractures: 15
Total hips: 30
Total knees: 30

This is not complete, but is a cross section of what is expected. In residency my classmates and I all easily reached these numbers, doubling the minimums in a majority of categories. Hope this helps!

 

[blaqmamba]

How much of a case is the resident expected to perform for it to count?