• Megan Rajagopal, Joseph Boyle, Vishal Patel, Charles Opalak, Dennis J Rivet, and John Reavey-Cantwell.
• Department of Neurosurgery, Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, Medical College of Virginia, Richmond, Virginia, USA. Electronic address: megan.rajagopal@vcuhealth.org.
• World Neurosurg. 2021 Nov 1; 155: e716-e726.

BackgroundConcerns about the changing demographics in the United States and the aging of the neurosurgical workforce exist. Both the importance and inherent risk of surgical responsibilities suggest that thought be given to whether workloads should change later in surgeons' careers. We sought to assess current neurosurgeons' expectations concerning their late-stage careers.MethodsA survey was sent to 3317 U.S. board-certified neurosurgeons. It was designed to assess surgeons' perceptions of call and operative responsibilities in the later stages of their careers. Statistical analyses were completed in R version 3.6.1, with an alpha set to 0.05.ResultsSix-hundred and fifty-nine neurosurgeons completed the questionnaire. Seventy-seven percent believed that the call burden should decrease later in practice, and 66% planned to decrease their own call burden later in their career. The most common age range for planned retirement was 65 to 69 years (36%), followed by 70+ years (33%). Most (67%) believed that there should not be a mandatory age to stop operating. More recent year of residency completion was negatively associated with the belief that call burden should decrease at older age groups and positively associated with support for a mandatory age to stop operating as well as an earlier retirement age.ConclusionsThis study suggests that neurosurgeons have differing views on how workloads should change later in their careers. Younger neurosurgeons support an earlier decrease in workload or even a policy-mandated stop to operating after a certain age. These results may give insight into future trends and turnover in neurosurgery and provide a valuable tool to help practices anticipate workforce changes.Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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