• Arjun Gupta, Vamsi Reddy, Awinita Barpujari, Raj Swaroop Lavadi, Prateek Agarwal, Yue-Fang Chang, James Mooney, Galal A Elsayed, and Nitin Agarwal.
• Department of Neurological Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey, USA.
• World Neurosurg. 2023 Mar 1; 171: e47e56e47-e56.

ObjectiveNeurosurgical subspecialty fellowship training has become increasingly popular in recent decades. However, few studies have evaluated recent trends in postgraduate subspecialty education. This study aims to provide a detailed cross-sectional analysis of subspecialty fellowship training completion trends and demographics among U.S. academic neurosurgeons.MethodsAcademic clinical faculty (M.D. or D.O.) teaching at accredited neurosurgery programs were included. Demographic, career, and fellowship data were collected from departmental physician profiles and the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) membership database. Relative citation ratio scores were retrieved using the National Institutes of Health iCite tool.ResultsThis study included 1691 surgeons (1756 fellowships) from 125 institutions. The majority (79.13%) reported fellowship training. Fellowship completion was more common among recent graduates (residency year >2000), as was training in multiple subspecialties (P < 0.0001). Spine was the most popular subspecialty (16.04%), followed by pediatrics (11.18%), and cerebrovascular (9.46%). The least common were trauma/critical care (2.52%) and peripheral nerve (1.26%). Spine, neuroradiology, and endovascular subspecialties grew in popularity over time. Pediatrics and spine were the most popular for females and males, respectively. Epilepsy and cerebrovascular had the most full professors, while endovascular and spine had the most assistant professors. Stereotactic/functional and epilepsy had the most Ph.Ds. Fellowship training correlated with higher weighted, but not mean, relative citation ratio scores among associate (P = 0.002) and full professors (P = 0.005).ConclusionsThere is an emerging proclivity for additional fellowship training among young neurosurgeons, often in multiple subspecialties. These findings are intended to help guide professional decision-making and optimize the delivery of postgraduate education.Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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