I’m working on a case study for a bioethics course, and I’ve been able to dig up most of the info and stats I need. One thing, which I thought would be easy to find, has eluded me however, because my google-fu seems weak today.
How many surgeries does a surgeon perform over the course of a typical career? I realize this will vary by field, but if anyone can point me in a relevant direction it would be much appreciated.
Wasn’t there a Tom Slick cartoon episode from the 60s 70s featuring a surgeon who could do something like 100 gall bladder removals per day?
That’s all I got. You’re sure this isn’t really homework, right? 
I can’t imagine you’ll find a statistic like that without narrowing the field to one specialty. I mean, a plastic surgeon might do 10 procedures in a day whereas someone performing heart surgery might only perform 1 a day. A transplant surgeon maybe once a week. It’s like saying “How many meals does a cook make in a career?”
This might be of some use:
“Normally, a heart surgeon performs about 4,000 operations in a lifetime.”
http://www.health.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=36238&site=783&return=36200
Our heart surgeon would usually do 1-3 surgeries a day 5 days a week. He’d take a month off per year. That’s 1050 to 3150 per year. Even if he didn’t keep that pace for his whole career, he’d do way more than 4000.
In a 35 year career, 4000 would be just over two a week. I’d want my heart surgeon to have more practice than that.
World Eater, Having worked with surgeons in and from many different places, I’d have to say it depends on the specialty, as well as the individual surgeon. Some live to cut, some cut to live, and some live to golf. The venue would also factor in, as well, private practice versus a teaching environment.
A general surgeon in private practice probably averages 1-3 cases per day, depending on the complexity of the surgery. Many surgeons work short weeks, doing surgery three days a week, paperwork, office and hospital visits the other two.
I hope you find what you’re looking for, it might be harder than it seems.
Vaguely related–
I went to a GI doc for a colonoscopy. At the consult I asked about dangers of procedure. He said don’t worry, he’d done 25,000. I went home and re-checked the year he graduated medical school. He’d been practicing for 28 years.
When I was laying on the gurney, the nurse and anesthesia tech assured me he did 30 a morning 4 days a week. He spent the afternoon in the office seeing patients in an upright position. The procedures (that’s what they called us, not patients) were lined up in the hallways 3 deep.
Guess he wasn’t exaggerating.