TY - JOUR
T1 - Regional variation in surgery for pancreatic cancer in Denmark 2011-2015
AU - Wennervaldt, Kasper
AU - Kejs, Anne Mette
AU - Lipczak, Henriette
AU - Bartels, Paul
AU - Borre, Michael
AU - Fristrup, Claus Wilki
AU - Kehlet, Henrik
N1 - Articles published in the DMJ are “open access”. This means that the articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits any non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
PY - 2018/9/1
Y1 - 2018/9/1
N2 - INTRODUCTION: Surgical treatment for pancreatic cancer carries a high risk of both morbidity and mortality. Even so, it remains the best curative treatment option. In Denmark, pancreatic surgery has been extensively centralised since the millennium, but the effect of this centralisation on patient outcome has not been evaluated. This study describes regional variation within pancreatic surgery on a malignant indication, focusing on production volume, length of stay, readmission rates and mortality. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of all patients with pancreatic cancer who underwent surgical treatment in Denmark from 2011 to 2015. We obtained data from the Danish National Patient Registry and the National Pathology Data Bank on length of stay, transfers, mortality (both short and long term), age, co-morbidity, and disease stage. RESULTS: Four hospital units performed a total of 691 surgical procedures (476 pancreaticoduodenectomies) in the study period. Production volume varied considerably across units with two units accounting for nearly 80% of surgery performed. Data revealed variation on rates of transfers and readmissions as well as disease stage and mortality (both short and long term). CONCLUSIONS: Data suggest that mortality is linked to production volume as well as disease stage, but the small data quantity impedes rigorous statistical analysis. Further studies on the observed associations are required.none. TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.
AB - INTRODUCTION: Surgical treatment for pancreatic cancer carries a high risk of both morbidity and mortality. Even so, it remains the best curative treatment option. In Denmark, pancreatic surgery has been extensively centralised since the millennium, but the effect of this centralisation on patient outcome has not been evaluated. This study describes regional variation within pancreatic surgery on a malignant indication, focusing on production volume, length of stay, readmission rates and mortality. METHODS: This is a retrospective cohort study of all patients with pancreatic cancer who underwent surgical treatment in Denmark from 2011 to 2015. We obtained data from the Danish National Patient Registry and the National Pathology Data Bank on length of stay, transfers, mortality (both short and long term), age, co-morbidity, and disease stage. RESULTS: Four hospital units performed a total of 691 surgical procedures (476 pancreaticoduodenectomies) in the study period. Production volume varied considerably across units with two units accounting for nearly 80% of surgery performed. Data revealed variation on rates of transfers and readmissions as well as disease stage and mortality (both short and long term). CONCLUSIONS: Data suggest that mortality is linked to production volume as well as disease stage, but the small data quantity impedes rigorous statistical analysis. Further studies on the observed associations are required.none. TRIAL REGISTRATION: not relevant.
KW - Adult
KW - Aged
KW - Comorbidity
KW - Denmark/epidemiology
KW - Female
KW - Geography, Medical/statistics & numerical data
KW - Humans
KW - Length of Stay/statistics & numerical data
KW - Male
KW - Middle Aged
KW - Pancreatic Neoplasms/mortality
KW - Pancreaticoduodenectomy/statistics & numerical data
KW - Patient Readmission/statistics & numerical data
KW - Retrospective Studies
KW - Time Factors
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 30187862
SN - 1603-9629
VL - 65
JO - Danish Medical Journal
JF - Danish Medical Journal
IS - 9
M1 - A5503
ER -