WHEN IT COMES TO SURGERY, AGE DOES MATTER

Age might be something to weigh when choosing a surgeon. Researchers looked at nearly 3,600 thyroid surgeries performed over a year and a half, in five French hospitals. They tracked two permanent complications that can occur if the surgeries aren't expertly performed (recurrent layrygeal nerve palsy and hypoparathyroidism, which occur in 2% to 3% of the cases).

Surgeons in their first five years of practice had a higher-than-average incidence of complications—but so did surgeons over 50. The sweet spot for performance was ages 35 to 50. The authors controlled for the complexity of each case: The hardest cases didn't necessarily go to the most experienced surgeons.

The authors cautioned against overgeneralizing but said the study showed that accumulating experience alone isn't enough to keep surgeons in top form, so more late-career training may be necessary.

"Influence of Experience on Performance of Individual Surgeons in Thyroid Surgery: Prospective Cross Sectional Multicentre Study," Antoine Duclos and 10 other authors, British Medical Journal (Jan. 11)