The Perioperative Quality Improvement Programme (PQIP patient study): protocol for a UK multicentre, prospective cohort study to measure quality of care and outcomes after major surgery.

INTRODUCTION: Major surgery accounts for a substantial proportion of health service activity, due not only to the primary procedure, but the longer-term health implications of poor short-term outcome. Data from small studies or from outside the UK indicate that rates of complications and failure to rescue vary between hospitals, as does compliance with best practice processes. Within the UK, there is currently no system for monitoring postoperative complications (other than short-term mortality) in major non-cardiac surgery. Further, there is variation between national audit programmes, in the emphasis placed on quality assurance versus quality improvement, and therefore the principles of measurement and reporting which are used to design such programmes. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: The PQIP patient study is a multi-centre prospective cohort study which recruits patients undergoing major surgery. Patient provide informed consent and contribute baseline and outcome data from their perspective using a suite of patient-reported outcome tools. Research and clinical staff complete data on patient risk factors and outcomes in-hospital, including two measures of complications. Longer-term outcome data are collected through patient feedback and linkage to national administrative datasets (mortality and readmissions). As well as providing a uniquely granular dataset for research, PQIP provides feedback to participating sites on their compliance with evidence-based processes and their patients' outcomes, with the aim of supporting local quality improvement. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical approval has been granted by the Health Research Authority in the UK. Dissemination of interim findings (non-inferential) will form a part of the improvement methodology and will be provided to participating centres at regular intervals, including near-real time feedback of key process measures. Inferential analyses will be published in the peer-reviewed literature, supported by a comprehensive multi-modal communications strategy including to patients, policy makers and academic audiences as well as clinicians.

Delivery of drinking, eating and mobilising (DrEaMing) and its association with length of hospital stay after major noncardiac surgery: observational cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Enhanced recovery pathways are associated with improved postoperative outcomes. However, as enhanced recovery pathways have become more complex and varied, compliance has reduced. The 'DrEaMing' bundle re-prioritises early postoperative delivery of drinking, eating, and mobilising. We investigated relationships between DrEaMing compliance, postoperative hospital length of stay (LOS), and complications in a prospective multicentre major surgical cohort. METHODS: We interrogated the UK Perioperative Quality Improvement Programme dataset. Analyses were conducted in four stages. In an exploratory cohort, we identified independent predictors of DrEaMing. We quantified the association between delivery of DrEaMing (and its component variables) and prolonged LOS in a homogenous colorectal subgroup and assessed generalisability in multispecialty patients. Finally, LOS and complications were compared across hospitals, stratified by DrEaMing compliance. RESULTS: The exploratory cohort comprised 22 218 records, the colorectal subgroup 7230, and the multispecialty subgroup 5713. DrEaMing compliance was 59% (13 112 patients), 60% (4341 patients), and 60% (3421), respectively, but varied substantially between hospitals. Delivery of DrEaMing predicted reduced odds of prolonged LOS in colorectal (odds ratio 0.51 [0.43-0.59], P<0.001) and multispecialty cohorts (odds ratio 0.47 [0.41-0.53], P<0.001). At the hospital level, complications were not the primary determinant of LOS after colorectal surgery, but consistent delivery of DrEaMing was associated with significantly shorter LOS. CONCLUSIONS: Delivery of bundled and unbundled DrEaMing was associated with substantial reductions in postoperative LOS, independent of the effects of confounder variables. Consistency of process delivery, and not complications, predicted shorter hospital-level length of stay. DrEaMing may be adopted by perioperative health systems as a quality metric to support improved patient outcomes and reduced hospital length of stay.

Utilisation of tracheostomy in patients with COVID-19 in England: Patient characteristics, timing and outcomes.

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to characterise the use of tracheostomy procedures for all COVID-19 critical care patients in England and to understand how patient factors and timing of tracheostomy affected outcomes. DESIGN: A retrospective observational study using exploratory analysis of hospital administrative data. SETTING: All 500 National Health Service hospitals in England. PARTICIPANTS: All hospitalised COVID-19 patients aged ≥18 years in England between 1 March and 31 October 2020 were included. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: This was a retrospective exploratory analysis using the Hospital Episode Statistics administrative data set. Multilevel modelling was used to explore the relationship between demographic factors, comorbidity and use of tracheostomy and the association between tracheostomy use, tracheostomy timing and the outcomes. RESULTS: In total, 2200 hospitalised COVID-19 patients had a tracheostomy. Tracheostomy utilisation varied across the study period, peaking in April-June 2020. In multivariable modelling, for those admitted to critical care, tracheostomy was most common in those aged 40-79 years, in males and in people of Black and Asian ethnic groups and those with a history of cerebrovascular disease. In critical care patients, tracheostomy was associated with lower odds of mortality (OR: 0.514 [95% CI 0.443 to 0.596], but greater length of stay OR: 41.143 [95% CI 30.979 to 54.642]). In patients that survived, earlier timing of tracheostomy (≤14 days post admission to critical care) was significantly associated with shorter length of stay. CONCLUSIONS: Tracheostomy is safe and advantageous for critical care COVID-19 patients. Early tracheostomy may be associated with better outcomes, such as shorter length of stay, compared to late tracheostomy.

Variability in COVID-19 in-hospital mortality rates between national health service trusts and regions in England: A national observational study for the Getting It Right First Time Programme.

BACKGROUND: A key first step in optimising COVID-19 patient outcomes during future case-surges is to learn from the experience within individual hospitals during the early stages of the pandemic. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent of variation in COVID-19 outcomes between National Health Service (NHS) hospital trusts and regions in England using data from March-July 2020. METHODS: This was a retrospective observational study using the Hospital Episode Statistics administrative dataset. Patients aged ≥ 18 years who had a diagnosis of COVID-19 during a hospital stay in England that was completed between March 1st and July 31st, 2020 were included. In-hospital mortality was the primary outcome of interest. In secondary analysis, critical care admission, length of stay and mortality within 30 days of discharge were also investigated. Multilevel logistic regression was used to adjust for covariates. FINDINGS: There were 86,356 patients with a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 included in the study, of whom 22,944 (26.6%) died in hospital with COVID-19 as the primary cause of death. After adjusting for covariates, the extent of the variation in-hospital mortality rates between hospital trusts and regions was relatively modest. Trusts with the largest baseline number of beds and a greater proportion of patients admitted to critical care had the lowest in-hospital mortality rates. INTERPRETATION: There is little evidence of clustering of deaths within hospital trusts. There may be opportunities to learn from the experience of individual trusts to help prepare hospitals for future case-surges.

Shared decision making for elective abdominal aortic aneurysm surgery.

Decisions on how and when to treat an abdominal aortic aneurysm involve a number of clinicians; interventional radiologists and vascular surgeons assess the technical ability to repair the aneurysm. Patients' fitness and past medical history is assessed to estimate their short- and long-term survival with or without surgery. Most importantly the patients' personal preference for treatment must be identified. Getting a patient to share what matters most to them requires shared decision making.

Does the Implementation of a Quality Improvement Care Bundle Reduce the Incidence of Acute Kidney Injury in Patients Undergoing Emergency Laparotomy?

PURPOSE: Previous work has demonstrated a survival improvement following the introduction of an enhanced recovery protocol in patients undergoing emergency laparotomy (the emergency laparotomy pathway quality improvement care (ELPQuiC) bundle). Implementation of this bundle increased the use of intra-operative goal directed fluid therapy and ICU admission, both evidence-based strategies recommended to improve kidney outcomes. The aim of this study was to determine if the observed mortality benefit could be explained by a difference in the incidence of AKI pre- and post-implementation of the protocol. METHOD: The primary outcome was the incidence of AKI in the pre- and post-ELPQuiC bundle patient population in four acute trusts in the United Kingdom. Secondary outcomes included the KDIGO stage specific incidence of AKI. Serum creatinine values were obtained retrospectively at baseline, in the post-operative period and the maximum recorded creatinine between day 1 and day 30 were obtained. RESULTS: A total of 303 patients pre-ELPQuiC bundle and 426 patients post-ELPQuiC bundle implementation were identified across the four centres. The overall AKI incidence was 18.4% in the pre-bundle group versus 19.8% in the post bundle group p = 0.653. No significant differences were observed between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: Despite this multi-centre cohort study demonstrating an overall survival benefit, implementation of the quality improvement care bundle did not affect the incidence of AKI.

Optical coherence tomography versus intravascular ultrasound in the evaluation of observer variability and reliability in the assessment of stent deployment: the OCTIVUS study.

OBJECTIVES: To compare the variability in the assessment of coronary stents among interventional cardiologists (readers) using optical coherence tomography (OCT) and intravascular ultrasound (IVUS). BACKGROUND: IVUS is established and validated in the evaluation of coronary stent. For cardiologists without core lab expertise, the utility of IVUS is limited by image quality. OCT yields higher image resolution; however, the consistency with which these readers interpret OCT images has not been fully evaluated or compared with IVUS. METHODS: OCT and IVUS image sets (five pairs) obtained after stent placement were reviewed by readers with clinical experience in both modalities. Parameters assessed included stent expansion and symmetry, reference vessel and in-stent cross-sectional area (CSA) and diameter, and stent strut apposition as well as Multicenter Ultrasound Stenting in Coronaries criteria. These interpretations were compared with core lab readings and examined for interobserver variability. RESULTS: The interobserver variability for measurement of in-stent CSA was 1.34 mm(2) using IVUS compared with 0.85 mm(2) using OCT (P = 0.024). Variation in the deviation from core lab measurement of in-stent CSA for IVUS was 1.48 mm(2) compared with 0.87 mm(2) for OCT (P = 0.042). The interobserver agreement for obtaining the Multicenter Ultrasound Stenting in Coronaries criteria using IVUS was 80.4% compared with 81.1% using OCT (P = 0.78). Compared with the corelab measurement, the readers obtained an agreement of 72.7% using IVUS vs. 67.3% using OCT (P = 0.43). CONCLUSION: In the assessment of deployed coronary stents by practicing cardiologists, OCT images are interpreted more consistently compared with IVUS and can be used to assess stent deployment using IVUS-validated metrics.

Clinical outcomes after zotarolimus and everolimus drug eluting stent implantation in coronary artery bifurcation lesions: insights from the RESOLUTE All Comers Trial.

OBJECTIVE: We investigated clinical outcomes after treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions with second generation drug eluting stents (DES). DESIGN: Post hoc analysis of a randomised, multicentre, non-inferiority trial. SETTING: Multicentre study. PATIENTS: All comers study with minimal exclusion criteria. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were treated with either zotarolimus or everolimus eluting stents. The patient population was divided according to treatment of bifurcation or non-bifurcation lesions and clinical outcomes were compared between groups. MAIN OUTCOMES MEASURES: Clinical outcomes within 2-year follow-up. RESULTS: A total of 2265 patients were included in the present analysis. Two-year follow-up data were available in 2223 patients: 1838 patients in the non-bifurcation group and 385 patients in the bifurcation group. At 2-year follow-up the bifurcation and the non-bifurcation lesion groups showed no significant differences in terms of cardiac death (2.3 vs 2.1, p=0.273), target lesion failure (9.7% vs 13.8%, p=0.255), major adverse cardiac events (11.5% vs 15.1%, p=0.305), target lesion revascularisation (4.7% vs 6.0%, p=0.569), and definite or probable stent thrombosis (1.6% vs 1.8%, p=0.419). CONCLUSIONS: The use of second generation DES for the treatment of coronary bifurcation lesions was associated with similar long term mortality and clinical outcomes compared with non-bifurcation lesions.

Fractured neck of femur patient care improved by simulated fast-track system.

BACKGROUND: Fractured neck of femur patients represent a large demand on trauma services, and timely management results in improvements in morbidity and mortality. NICE guidance, advocating surgery on the day of admission or the following day, emphasises this. We set out to investigate whether a simulated fast-track management system could improve neck of femur fracture patient care. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This prospective study was performed in a district general hospital in South West England, following a change in practise. We studied 429 patients over a 1-year period. Patients were phoned through, by the ambulance crew, to a trauma coordinator who arranged prompt radiological assessment and review. Patients with confirmed fractures were transferred to an optimisation area for orthopaedic and anaesthetic assessment prior to surgery the same day or early the following day. Our primary outcome measures were time to theatre (h) and length of hospital stay (days/h). RESULTS: Time to theatre reduced from 44.95 (±27.42) to 29.28 (±21.23) h. Length of stay reduced from 10 days (245.92 (±131.02) h) to 9 days (225.30 (±128.75) h). Both of these improvements were statistically significant (P < 0.05). Despite operating on virtually all patients, no increase in adverse events was seen, there was no increase in 30-day mortality and there were no perioperative deaths. CONCLUSIONS: This coordinated management pathway improves the efficiency of the service and reduces inpatient length of stay. Increased productivity may lead to financial savings and improve our ability to meet guidelines.

Association between preoperative haemoglobin concentration and cardiopulmonary exercise variables: a multicentre study.

BACKGROUND: Preoperative anaemia and low exertional oxygen uptake are both associated with greater postoperative morbidity and mortality. This study reports the association among haemoglobin concentration ([Hb]), peak oxygen uptake (V˙O2 peak) and anaerobic threshold (AT) in elective surgical patients. METHODS: Between 1999 and 2011, preoperative [Hb] and cardiopulmonary exercise tests were recorded in 1,777 preoperative patients in four hospitals. The associations between [Hb], V˙O2 peak and AT were analysed by linear regression and covariance. RESULTS: In 436 (24.5%) patients, [Hb] was <12 g dl-1 and, in 83 of these, <10 g dl-1. Both AT and V˙O2 peak rose modestly with increasing [Hb] (r2 = 0.24, P <0.0001 and r2 = 0.30, P <0.0001, respectively). After covariate adjustment, an increase in [Hb] of one standard deviation was associated with a 6.7 to 9.7% increase in V˙O2 peak, and a rise of 4.4 to 6.0% in AT. Haemoglobin concentration accounted for 9% and 6% of the variation in V˙O2 peak and AT respectively. CONCLUSIONS: To a modest extent, lower haemoglobin concentrations are independently associated with lower oxygen uptake during preoperative cardiopulmonary exercise testing. It is unknown whether this association is causative.

Clinical endpoint adjudication in a contemporary all-comers coronary stent investigation: methodology and external validation.

BACKGROUND: Globalisation in coronary stent research calls for harmonization of clinical endpoint definitions and event adjudication. Little has been published about the various processes used for event adjudication or their impact on outcome reporting. METHODS AND RESULTS: We performed a validation of the clinical event committee (CEC) adjudication process on 100 suspected events in the RESOLUTE All-comers trial (Resolute-AC). Two experienced Clinical Research Organisations (CRO) that had already extensive internal validation processes in place, participated in the study. After initial adjudication by the primary-CEC, events were cross-adjudicated by an external-CEC using the same definitions. Major discrepancies affecting the primary end point of target-lesion failure (TLF), a composite of cardiac death, target vessel myocardial infarction (TV-MI), or clinically-indicated target-lesion revascularization (CI-TLR), were analysed by an independent oversight committee who provided recommendations for harmonization. Discordant adjudications were reconsidered by the primary CEC. Subsequently, the RAC database was interrogated for cases that based on these recommendations merited re-adjudication and these cases were also re-adjudicated by the primary CEC. Final discrepancies in adjudication of individual components of TLF occurred in 7 out of 100 events in 5 patients. Discrepancies for the (hierarchical) primary endpoint occurred in 5 events (2 cardiac deaths and 3 TV-MI). After application of harmonization recommendations to the overall RAC population (n=2292), the primary CEC adjudicated 3 additional clinical-TLRs and considered 1 TV-MI as no event. CONCLUSIONS: A harmonization process provided a high level of concordance for event adjudication and improved accuracy for final event reporting. These findings suggest it is feasible to pool clinical event outcome data across clinical trials even when different CECs are responsible for event adjudication.

Combined anatomical and clinical factors for the long-term risk stratification of patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention: the Logistic Clinical SYNTAX score.

BACKGROUND: The SYNTAX score (SXscore), an anatomical-based scoring tool reflecting the complexity of coronary anatomy, has established itself as an important long-term prognostic factor in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). The incorporation of clinical factors may further augment the utility of the SXscore to longer-term risk stratify the individual patient for clinical outcomes. METHODS AND RESULTS: Patient-level merged data from >6000 patients in seven contemporary coronary stent trials was used to develop a logistic regression model-the Logistic Clinical SXscore-to predict 1-year risk for all-cause death and major adverse cardiac events (MACE). A core model (composed of the SXscore, age, creatinine clearance, and left ventricular ejection fraction) and an extended model [incorporating the core model and six additional (best performing) clinical variables] were developed and validated in a cross-validation procedure. The core model demonstrated a substantial improvement in predictive ability for 1-year all-cause death compared with the SXscore in isolation [area under the receiver operator curve (AUC): core model: 0.753, SXscore: 0.660]. A minor incremental benefit of the extended model was shown (AUC: 0.791). Consequently the core model alone was retained in the final the Logistic Clinical SXscore model. Validation plots confirmed the model predictions to be well calibrated. For 1-year MACE, the addition of clinical variables did not improve the predictive ability of the SXscore, secondary to the SXscore being the predominant determinant of all-cause revascularization. CONCLUSION: The Logistic Clinical SXscore substantially enhances the prediction of 1-year mortality after PCI compared with the SXscore, and allows for an accurate personalized assessment of patient risk.

A patient-level pooled analysis assessing the impact of the SYNTAX (synergy between percutaneous coronary intervention with taxus and cardiac surgery) score on 1-year clinical outcomes in 6,508 patients enrolled in contemporary coronary stent trials.

OBJECTIVES: This study sought to assess the impact of the SYNTAX (Synergy Between Percutaneous Coronary Intervention With Taxus and Cardiac Surgery) score (SXscore) on clinical outcomes in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention. BACKGROUND: The SXscore has been demonstrated to have an ability to predict clinical outcomes in patients undergoing percutaneous revascularization. Current studies are limited by the relatively small number of patients in each SXscore group. METHODS: Patient-level data from 7 contemporary coronary stent trials were pooled by an independent academic research organization (Cardialysis, Rotterdam, the Netherlands). Analysis was performed on a cohort of 6,508 patients treated with drug-eluting stents and who had calculated SXscores. Clinical outcomes in terms of death, myocardial infarction (MI), repeat revascularization, and major adverse cardiac events (MACE, a composite of death, MI, and repeat revascularization) were subsequently stratified according to SXscore quartiles: SXscore(Q1) ≤ 8 (n = 1,702); 8 < SXscore(Q2) < 15 (n = 1,528); 15 ≤ SXscore(Q3) < 23 (n = 1,620); and SXscore(Q4) ≥ 23 (n = 1,658). RESULTS: One-year outcomes were available in 6,496 patients (99.8%). At 1-year follow-up, all clinical outcomes including mortality, MI, repeat revascularization, MACE, and definite and any stent thrombosis were all significantly higher in patients in the highest SXscore quartile. Similar trends were observed in a subgroup of 2,093 patients (32.2%) who presented with an ST- or non-ST-segment elevation MI. The rate of MACE among patients with an SXscore > 32 and ≤ 32 was 24.9% and 14.0%, respectively (p < 0.001). The SXscore was identified as an independent predictor of all clinical outcomes including mortality, MACE, and stent thrombosis (p < 0.001 for all). CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the consistent ability of the SXscore to identify patients who are at highest risk of adverse events.