Impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the training of general surgery residents in a university hospital

Introduction: the COVID-19 pandemic caused a meaningful reduction in the number of elective surgeries at the global level. There is a great concern among different generations of surgical residents, on the consequences this might have on their medical training. Despite the medical training includes other aspects beyond the surgical practice, surgeries constitute an essential foundation. Objective: to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of surgeries where the general surgery residents participated, in a university hospital. Method: observational, retrospective and analytical study where the number of surgeries and assistance by the general surgery residents between March 13, 2020 and December 13, 2020, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic was compared to the number of surgeries recorded during the same period of time prior to the pandemic. Results: all the residents participated in a smaller number of surgeries. The greater impact was found in their participation in elective surgeries, while the difference in number was smaller in emergency surgeries. The greater impact in terms of number of patients operated involved first year residents. Discussion and conclusions: globally, the pandemic caused a significant reduction in the number of elective surgeries. This study demonstrated an important decrease in the number of assisted surgeries for the general surgery residents. Therefore, if the health emergency measures were extended, it would be important to evaluate the need to set goals and alternative forms of learning.