Operative Case Criteria - Pathway I

A broad education and adequate operative experience in congenital heart surgery are essential to any approved congenital heart surgery residency program, irrespective of the area of congenital heart surgery in which a candidate may choose to practice. The operative experience requirement of the ABTS has two parts. One is concerned with the intensity or volume of cases, and the other with the distribution of cases (index cases).

1. Surgical Volume (Intensity)

The Board's operative experience requirements include performance of seventy-five (75) major congenital heart operative procedures as primary surgeon during the twelve (12) months of residency training.

This guideline on intensity of cases conforms with the Program Requirements in Thoracic Surgery as published by the ACGME and the RRC-TS.

The application of any candidate whose supervised operative experience fails to meet the requirement of 75 major congenital heart operations as primary surgeon will be referred to the Board’s Credentials Committee for review. Additional training time may be necessary for the candidate to meet the surgical case intensity requirement.

Repeated incidences of a program’s failure to meet operative volume requirements for its residents may be reported to the RRC-TS.

2. Index Cases (Distribution)

Index Cases are full credit, primary surgeon cases only, performed during the twelve (12) months of congenital heart surgery residency training. Applicants are required to have an extensive education and adequate operative experience in sufficient depth and breadth of the entire scope of congenital heart surgery so as to be able to practice independently after program completion. The number of index cases required to meet the minimal acceptable standards in the various areas are as follows.

For the full details of the Congenital Initial Certification process, refer to the Congenital Booklet of Information on the ABTS homepage at www.abts.org.