Table 3.

Sensitivity analyses. Estimates of learning curve given various assumptions.

			Adjusted 5-year reoperative rates*
Analysis	Number of surgeons+	Number of patients+	Surgeons with 5 prior operations	Surgeons with 100 prior operations	Difference between reoperative rates	p value†
Main analysis	6,868	40,347	24.0%	18.1%	5.9% (95%CI 1.3%, 10.1%)	0.020
Adjusting for cuff size	6,868	40,347	24.0%	18.0%	6.0%	0.013
Surgeons with at least 25 total cases	336	12,257	24.9%	16.9%	8.0%	0.015
Surgeons with at least 50 total cases	64	4,229	27.5%	17.4%	10.2%	0.008
Most experienced surgeon for patients with multiple attending surgeons	6,404	38,864	23.9%	16.6%	7.3%	<0.001
Least experienced surgeon for patients with multiple attending surgeons	7,083	39,914	24.0%	19.2%	4.8%	0.045
Patients without neurogenic etiology‡	6,681	37,628	23.6%	17.9%	5.7%	0.031
Surgeons with complete case history defined as data on 1st lifetime case	6,249	32,743	23.6%	17.3%	6.3%	0.004
Surgeons with complete case history defined as data on 25th lifetime case	6,908	42,186	24.0%	19.7%	4.3%	0.039
Excluding removals	6,868	40,347	22.7%	16.9%	5.8%	0.018

^*Adjusted probabilities are for a patient of average age with residency in the United States.

^† Test for the association between experience and outcome in the multivariable model (two-sided P value).

^‡ Incontinence of neurogenic etiology includes neurologic disorder, other neurogenic, meningomyelocele, sacral agenesis, spinal cord trauma/tumor/surgery, and DESD (detrusor external sphincter dyssynergia).

⁺ The number of surgeons and patients may differ from table 2 for two reasons: 1) Table 2 includes patients through 2008 whereas the main analysis includes only those through 2003. 2) In the case of analyses using different criteria to select surgeons for patients with multiple attending surgeons, selection of different surgeons affected the number with full history of cases.