A partnership model between high- and low-volume hospitals to improve results in hepatobiliary pancreatic surgery.

OBJECTIVE: To optimize the results of low-volume (LV) centers for hepatopancreaticobiliary (HPB) surgery. BACKGROUND: High-volume (HV) centers for HPB surgery have lower mortality than LV. Strategies for collaboration between HV and LV centers are not well investigated. METHODS: Postoperative outcomes of patients undergoing curative HPB resection were evaluated at an LV hospital before (2006-2008) and during the collaboration (2009-2012) and at 2 hospitals with HV for either liver or pancreatic resection (2009-2012). Itinerant tutor surgeons from the HV centers were involved in the pre-, intra- and postoperative course of HPB patients at the LV hospital. RESULTS: HPB cases at the LV center increased from 18 to 40 patients per year from 2006 to 2012, whereas 6-month postoperative mortality decreased from 17.8% (2006-2008) to 6% (2009-2012), P<0.05 (liver: 10.3% vs 4.7% and pancreas: 29.4% vs 7.9%). During the collaborative study period, outcomes for hepatectomy were similar for LV and HV (85 vs 507 cases): postoperative Clavien-Dindo scores 4 and 5 were 2% and 0.2% for HV versus 2.4% and 1.2% for LV, respectively. Outcomes for pancreatic procedures (LV 63 vs HV 269 cases) showed better postoperative Clavien-Dindo scores 4 and 5 in the HV (0.7% score 4 and 1.5% score 5 for HV vs 3.2% and 6.3%, respectively, for LV) but the difference disappeared in the last 2 years (2011-2012) and matching the cases. CONCLUSIONS: Our partnership model helped improve postoperative outcomes at the LV center. Results at the LV hospital were comparable with the HV centers, although 2 years of partnership were required to achieve this in pancreatic surgery.