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Multicenter Study
. 2003 Jul 12;327(7406):73.
doi: 10.1136/bmj.327.7406.73.

Assessment of whether in-hospital mortality for lobectomy is a useful standard for the quality of lung cancer surgery: retrospective study

Tom Treasure  1 , Martin Utley, Alan Bailey
Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Assessment of whether in-hospital mortality for lobectomy is a useful standard for the quality of lung cancer surgery: retrospective study

Tom Treasure et al. BMJ. .

Abstract

Objectives: To calculate in-hospital mortality after lobectomy for primary lung cancer in the United Kingdom; to explore the validity of using such data to assess the quality of UK thoracic surgeons; and to investigate the relation between in-hospital mortality and the number of procedures performed by surgeons.

Design: Retrospective study.

Setting: 36 departments dealing with thoracic surgery in UK hospitals.

Participants: 4028 patients who had undergone lobectomy for primary lung cancer by one of 102 surgeons.

Main outcome measures: In-hospital mortality in relation to individual surgeons, among all patients, and among each of five groups of patients defined by the number of operations performed by the surgeon.

Results: 103 patients (2.6%, 95% confidence interval 2.1% to 3.1%) died after surgery during the same hospital admission. No significant difference was found for in-hospital mortality between the five groups.

Conclusions: The number of procedures performed by a thoracic surgeon is not related to in-hospital mortality. Reporting data on in-hospital mortality after lobectomy for primary lung cancer is a poor tool for measuring a surgeon's performance.

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Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1
In-hospital mortality in relation to number of operations performed by surgeon during 1999-2001
Fig 2
Fig 2
Number of patient deaths in relation to number of operations performed by surgeon during 1999-2001
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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