Identifying the effect of the surgical team on cardiac surgery operation time: A retrospective analysis

Procedure complexity and surgical team composition are the primary predictors of surgical procedure duration. Because only the latter is readily modifiable, we sought to investigate the influence of team composition on procedure duration in cardiac surgery. A retrospective review of 1315 cardiac surgeries performed in one year at a tertiary center in Alberta, Canada was completed. The effects of patient factors, procedure complexity, and team size on procedure duration were evaluated through correlation analysis and multiple regression analysis. Average procedure duration was 238.8 min and average team size was 13.2 individuals. Procedure duration had the strongest correlation with procedure complexity (r = 0.714, p < 0.001), followed by team size (r = 0.540, p < 0.001). When controlling for other predictors, multiple regression analysis predicted a time increase in procedure duration for each additional surgical team member. Our study affirms that surgical team is an important predictor of procedure duration in cardiac surgery. Interventions minimizing surgical team size may reduce procedure times.