The relationship between hospital volume and post-operative mortality rates for upper gastrointestinal cancer resections: Scotland 1982–2003

BackgroundCentralisation of surgical treatment of cancer has resulted in improved outcomes. We aimed to determine evidence of benefit for specialised management of upper gastrointestinal cancer in high-volume centres in Scotland.MethodsDischarge records of patients undergoing oesophagectomy, gastrectomy, hepatectomy or pancreatectomy between 1982 and 2003 were identified. Hospital data were analysed on a year-by-year basis to derive ‘hospital-years’. Hospital-years were divided into quartiles by volume, and were analysed with regard to in-hospital mortality during the operative admission [Chi-square test (χ2) and Chi-square test for trend (χ2trend)].Results10,625 patients and 982 in-hospital deaths were included. In-hospital mortality rates declined during the study period: oesophagectomy 11.7–7.9%; gastrectomy 11.2–7.2%; hepatectomy 11.1–3.0%; and pancreatectomy 8.3–4.9%. For all resections except gastrectomy, mortality decreased as quartile of hospital-year volume increased (oesophagectomy: χ2p = 0.006, χ2trendp = 0.001; hepatectomy: χ2p = 0.004, χ2trendp = 0.003; pancreatectomy: χ2p = 0.002, χ2trendp = 0.001). ORs of death were lower for oesophagectomy (OR = 0.58; 95%CI = 0.39, 0.88; p = 0.009) and pancreatectomy (OR = 0.35; 95%CI = 0.19, 0.64; p < 0.001) in hospital-years within highest-volume quartiles compared with lowest. Scattergraphs of all resection types demonstrated inverse power relationships between number of resections per hospital-year and mortality.ConclusionConcentration of cancer care has had major effects on health service delivery in Scotland. Centralisation should be supported in surgical management of upper gastrointestinal cancer.