Challenges in reliable preoperative blood ordering: A qualitative interview study.

BACKGROUND: Presurgical blood orders are important for patient safety during surgery, but excess orders can be costly to patients and the healthcare system. We aimed to assess clinician perceptions on the presurgical blood ordering process and perceived barriers to reliable decision-making. METHODS: This descriptive qualitative study was conducted at a single large academic medical center. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners working in preoperative assessment clinics, and transfusion medicine physicians to assess perceptions of current blood ordering processes. Interview responses were analyzed using an inductive open coding approach followed by thematic analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-three clinicians were interviewed. Clinicians felt that the current blood ordering process was frequently inconsistent. One contributor was a lack of information on surgical transfusion risk, related to lack of experience in ordering clinicians, insufficient communication between stakeholders, high turnover in academic settings, and lack of awareness of the maximum surgical blood ordering schedule. Other contributors included differing opinions about the benefits and harms of over- and under-preparing blood products, leading to variation in transfusion risk thresholds between clinicians, and disagreement about the safety of emergency-release blood. CONCLUSION: Several barriers to reliable decision-making for presurgical blood orders exist. Future efforts to improve ordering consistency may benefit from improved information sharing between stakeholders and education on safe transfusion practices.

Incidence and Relative Burden of Surgical Site Infections in Children Undergoing Nonemergent Surgery: Implications for Performance Benchmarking and Prioritization of Prevention Efforts.

OBJECTIVE: To establish surgical site infection (SSI) performance benchmarks in pediatric surgery and to develop a prioritization framework for SSI prevention based on procedure-level SSI burden. BACKGROUND: Contemporary epidemiology of SSI rates and event burden in elective pediatric surgery remain poorly characterized. METHODS: Multicenter analysis using sampled SSI data from 90 hospitals participating in NSQIP-Pediatric and procedural volume data from the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database. Procedure-level incisional and organ space SSI (OSI) rates for 17 elective procedure groups were calculated from NSQIP-Pediatric data and estimates of procedure-level SSI burden were extrapolated using procedural volume data. The relative contribution of each procedure to the cumulative sum of SSI events from all procedures was used as a prioritization framework. RESULTS: A total of 11,689 nonemergent procedures were included. The highest incisional SSI rates were associated with gastrostomy closure (4.1%), small bowel procedures (4.0%), and gastrostomy (3.7%), while the highest OSI rates were associated with esophageal atresia/tracheoesophageal fistula repair (8.1%), colorectal procedures (1.8%), and small bowel procedures (1.5%). 66.1% of the cumulative incisional SSI burden from all procedures were attributable to 3 procedure groups (gastrostomy: 27.5%, small bowel: 22.9%, colorectal: 15.7%), and 72.8% of all OSI events were similarly attributable to 3 procedure groups (small bowel: 28.5%, colorectal: 26.0%, esophageal atresia/tracheoesophageal fistula repair: 18.4%). CONCLUSIONS: A small number of procedures account for a disproportionate burden of SSIs in pediatric surgery. The results of this analysis can be used as a prioritization framework for refocusing SSI prevention efforts where they are needed most.

The bleeding risk treatment paradox at the physician and hospital level: Implications for reducing bleeding in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention.

BACKGROUND: Bleeding is a common and costly complication of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Bleeding avoidance strategies (BAS) are used paradoxically less in patients at high-risk of bleeding: "bleeding risk-treatment paradox" (RTP). We determined whether hospitals and physicians, who do not align BAS to PCI patients' bleeding risk (ie, exhibit a RTP) have higher bleeding rates. METHODS: We examined 28,005 PCIs from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry CathPCI Registry for 7 hospitals comprising BJC HealthCare. BAS included transradial intervention, bivalirudin, and vascular closure devices. Patients' predicted bleeding risk was based on National Cardiovascular Data Registry CathPCI bleeding model and categorized as low (<2.0%), moderate (2.0%-6.4%), or high (≥6.5%) risk tertiles. BAS use was considered risk-concordant if: at least 1 BAS was used for moderate risk; 2 BAS were used for high risk and bivalirudin or vascular closure devices were not used for low risk. Absence of risk-concordant BAS use was defined as RTP. We analyzed inter-hospital and inter-physician variation in RTP, and the association of RTP with post-PCI bleeding. RESULTS: Amongst 28,005 patients undergoing PCI by 103 physicians at 7 hospitals, RTP was observed in 12,035 (43%) patients. RTP was independently associated with a higher likelihood of bleeding even after adjusting for predicted bleeding risk, mortality risk and potential sources of variation (OR 1.66, 95% CI 1.44-1.92, P < .001). A higher prevalence of RTP strongly and independently correlated with worse bleeding rates, both at the physician-level (Wilk's Lambda 0.9502, F-value 17.21, P < .0001) and the hospital-level (Wilk's Lambda 0.9899, F-value 35.68, P < .0001). All the results were similar in a subset of PCIs conducted since 2015 - a period more reflective of the contemporary practice. CONCLUSIONS: Bleeding RTP is a strong, independent predictor of bleeding. It exists at the level of physicians and hospitals: those with a higher rate of RTP had worse bleeding rates. These findings not only underscore the importance of recognizing bleeding risk upfront and using BAS in a risk-aligned manner, but also inform and motivate national efforts to reduce PCI-related bleeding.

Personalized Surgical Transfusion Risk Prediction Using Machine Learning to Guide Preoperative Type and Screen Orders.

BACKGROUND: Accurate estimation of surgical transfusion risk is essential for efficient allocation of blood bank resources and for other aspects of anesthetic planning. This study hypothesized that a machine learning model incorporating both surgery- and patient-specific variables would outperform the traditional approach that uses only procedure-specific information, allowing for more efficient allocation of preoperative type and screen orders. METHODS: The American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Participant Use File was used to train four machine learning models to predict the likelihood of red cell transfusion using surgery-specific and patient-specific variables. A baseline model using only procedure-specific information was created for comparison. The models were trained on surgical encounters that occurred at 722 hospitals in 2016 through 2018. The models were internally validated on surgical cases that occurred at 719 hospitals in 2019. Generalizability of the best-performing model was assessed by external validation on surgical cases occurring at a single institution in 2020. RESULTS: Transfusion prevalence was 2.4% (73,313 of 3,049,617), 2.2% (23,205 of 1,076,441), and 6.7% (1,104 of 16,053) across the training, internal validation, and external validation cohorts, respectively. The gradient boosting machine outperformed the baseline model and was the best- performing model. At a fixed 96% sensitivity, this model had a positive predictive value of 0.06 and 0.21 and recommended type and screens for 36% and 30% of the patients in internal and external validation, respectively. By comparison, the baseline model at the same sensitivity had a positive predictive value of 0.04 and 0.144 and recommended type and screens for 57% and 45% of the patients in internal and external validation, respectively. The most important predictor variables were overall procedure-specific transfusion rate and preoperative hematocrit. CONCLUSIONS: A personalized transfusion risk prediction model was created using both surgery- and patient-specific variables to guide preoperative type and screen orders and showed better performance compared to the traditional procedure-centric approach.

Surgical Outcomes in Canada and the United States: An Analysis of the ACS-NSQIP Clinical Registry.

BACKGROUND: There has been longstanding uncertainty over whether lower healthcare spending in Canada might be associated with inferior outcomes for hospital-based care. We hypothesized that mortality and surgical complication rates would be higher for patients who underwent four common surgical procedures in Canada as compared to the US. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all adults who underwent hip fracture repair, colectomy, pancreatectomy, or spine surgery in 96 Canadian and 585 US hospitals participating in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Project (ACS-NSQIP) between January 1, 2015 and December 31, 2019. We compared patients with respect to demographic characteristics and comorbidity. We then compared unadjusted and adjusted outcomes within 30-days of surgery for patients in Canada and the US including: (1) Mortality; (2) A composite constituting 1-or-more of the following complications (cardiac arrest; myocardial infarction; pneumonia; renal failure/; return to operating room; surgical site infection; sepsis; unplanned intubation). RESULTS: Our hip fracture cohort consisted of 21,166 patients in Canada (22.3%) and 73,817 in the US (77.7%), for colectomy 21,279 patients in Canada (8.9%) and 218,307 (91.1%), for pancreatectomy 873 (7.8%) in Canada and 12,078 (92.2%) in the US, and for spine surgery 14,088 (5.3%) and 252,029 (94.7%). Patient sociodemographics and comorbidity were clinically similar between jurisdictions. In adjusted analyses odds of death was significantly higher in Canada for two procedures (colectomy (OR 1.22; 95% CI 1.044-1.424; P = .012) and pancreatectomy (OR 2.11; 95% CI 1.26-3.56; P = .005)) and similar for hip fracture and spine surgery. Odds of the composite outcome were significantly higher in Canada for all 4 procedures, largely driven by higher risk of cardiac events and post-operative infections. CONCLUSIONS: We found evidence of higher rates of mortality and surgical complications within 30-days of surgery for patients in Canada as compared to the US.

Hyperamylasemia grade versus drain fluid amylase: which better predicts pancreatectomy outcomes?

BACKGROUND: The clinical importance of postoperative hyperamylasemia (POHA) grade is unknown. Our objectives were to evaluate the association of POHA grade with clinically relevant postoperative pancreatic fistula (CR-POPF) and compare its prognostic utility against postoperative day 1 drain fluid amylase (DFA-1). METHODS: Patients who underwent pancreatectomy from January 2019 through March 2020 were identified in the ACS NSQIP pancreatectomy-targeted dataset. POHA grade was assigned using post-operative serum amylase and clinical sequelae. The primary outcome was CR-POPF within 30 days. The association of POHA grade with CR-POPF was assessed using multivariable logistic regression, and c-statistics were used to compare POHA grade versus DFA-1. RESULTS: POHA occurred in 520 patients at 98 hospitals, including 261 (50.2%) with grade A, 234 (45.0%) with grade B, and 25 (4.8%) with grade C POHA. CR-POPFs were increased among patients with grade B (66.2%, OR 9.28 [5.84-14.73]) and C (68.0%, OR 10.50 [3.77-29.26]) versus grade A POHA (19.2%). POHA-inclusive models better predicted CR-POPF than those with DFA-1 alone (p < 0.002) and models with both predictors outperformed POHA alone (p = 0.039). CONCLUSION: POHA grade represents a measure of post-pancreatectomy outcomes that predicts CR-POPF and outperforms DFA-1 but must be aligned with new international definitions.

Antireflux Surgery at National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric Hospitals.

PURPOSE: This study aims to examine contemporary practice patterns and compare short-term outcomes for vesicoureteral reflux procedures (ureteral reimplant/endoscopic injection) using National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric data. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Procedure-specific variables for antireflux surgery were developed to capture data not typically collected in National Surgical Quality Improvement Program-Pediatric (eg vesicoureteral reflux grade, urine cultures, 31-60-day followup). Descriptive statistics were performed, and logistic regression assessed associations between patient/procedural factors and outcomes (urinary tract infection, readmissions, unplanned procedures). RESULTS: In total, 2,842 patients (median age 4 years; 76% female; 68% open reimplant, 6% minimally invasive reimplant, 25% endoscopic injection) had procedure-specific variables collected from July 2016 through June 2018. Among 88 hospitals, a median of 24.5 procedures/study period were performed (range 1-148); 95% performed ≥1 open reimplant, 30% ≥1 minimally invasive reimplant, and 70% ≥1 endoscopic injection, with variability by hospital. Two-thirds of patients had urine cultures sent preoperatively, and 76% were discharged on antibiotics. Outcomes at 30 days included emergency department visits (10%), readmissions (4%), urinary tract infections (3%), and unplanned procedures (2%). Over half of patients (55%) had optional 31-60-day followup, with additional outcomes (particularly urinary tract infections) noted. Patients undergoing reimplant were younger, had higher reflux grades, and more postoperative occurrences than patients undergoing endoscopic injections. CONCLUSIONS: Contemporary data indicate that open reimplant is still the most common antireflux procedure, but procedure distribution varies by hospital. Emergency department visits are common, but unplanned procedures are rare, particularly for endoscopic injection. These data provide basis for comparing short-term complications and developing standardized perioperative pathways for antireflux surgery.

Association of Patient-reported Experiences and Surgical Outcomes Among Group Practices: Retrospective Cohort Study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the study was to determine the association of patient-reported experiences (PREs) and risk-adjusted surgical outcomes among group practices. BACKGROUND: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services required large group practices to submit PREs data for successful participation in the Physician Quality Reporting System (PQRS) using the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems for PQRS survey. Whether these PREs data correlate with perioperative outcomes remains ill defined. METHODS: Operations between January 1, 2014 and December 31, 2016 in the American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program registry were merged with 2015 Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems for PQRS survey data. Hierarchical logistic models were constructed to estimate associations between 7 subscales and 1 composite score of PREs and 30-day morbidity, unplanned readmission, and unplanned reoperation, separately, while adjusting for patient- and procedure mix. RESULTS: Among 328 group practices identified, patients reported their experiences with clinician communication the highest (mean ±â€Šstandard deviation, 82.66 ±â€Š3.10), and with attention to medication cost the lowest (25.96 ±â€Š5.14). The mean composite score was 61.08 (±6.66). On multivariable analyses, better PREs scores regarding medication cost, between-visit communication, and the composite score of experience were each associated with 4% decreased odds of morbidity [odds ratio (OR) 0.96, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.92-0.99], readmission (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.93-0.99), and reoperation (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.93-0.99), respectively. In sensitivity analyses, better between-visit communication remained significantly associated with fewer readmissions. CONCLUSIONS: In these data, patients' report of better between-visit communication was associated with fewer readmissions. More sensitive, surgery-specific PRE assessments may reveal additional unique insights for improving the quality of surgical care.

Association between postoperative complications and lingering post-surgical pain: an observational cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Post-surgical pain that lingers beyond the initial few-week period of tissue healing is a major predictor of pain chronification, which leads to substantial disability and new persistent opioid analgesic use. We investigated whether postoperative medical complications increase the risk of lingering post-surgical pain. METHODS: The study population consisted of patients undergoing diverse elective surgical procedures in an academic referral centre in the USA, between September 2013 and May 2017. Multivariable logistic regression, adjusting for confounding variables and patient-specific risk factors, was used to test for an independent association between any major postoperative complication and functionally limiting lingering pain 1-3 months after surgery, as obtained from patient self-reports. RESULTS: The cohort included 11 986 adult surgical patients; 10 562 with complete data. At least one complication (cardiovascular, respiratory, renal/gastrointestinal, wound, thrombotic, or neural) was reported by 13.3% (95% confidence interval: 12.7-14.0) of patients, and 19.7% (19.0-20.5%) reported functionally limiting lingering post-surgical pain. After adjusting for known risk factors, the patients were twice as likely (odds ratio: 2.04; 1.78-2.35) to report lingering post-surgical pain if they also self-reported a postoperative complication. Experiencing a complication was also independently predictive of lingering post-surgical pain (odds ratio: 1.95; 1.26-3.04) when complication data were extracted from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program registry, instead of being obtained from patient self-report. CONCLUSIONS: Medical complications were associated with a two-fold increase in functionally limiting pain 1-3 months after surgery. Understanding the mechanisms that link complications to pathological persistence of pain could help develop future approaches to prevent persistent post-surgical pain.

Beyond death and graft survival-Variation in outcomes after liver transplant. Results from the NSQIP transplant beta phase.

The National Surgical Quality Program (NSQIP) Transplant program was designed by transplant surgeons from the ground up to track posttransplant outcomes beyond basic recipient and graft survival. After an initial pilot phase, the program has expanded to 29 participating sites and enrolled more than 4300 recipient-donor pairs into the database, including 1444 completed liver transplant cases. In this analysis, surgical site infection (SSI), urinary tract infection (UTI), and unplanned reoperation/intervention after liver transplantation were evaluated. We observed impressive variation in the crude incidence between sites for SSI (0%-29%), UTI (0%-10%), and reoperation/intervention (0%-57%). After adjustment for donor and recipient factors, at least 1 site was identified as an outlier for each of the analyzed outcomes. For the first time, the field of transplantation has data that demonstrate variation in liver recipient outcomes beyond death and graft survival between sites. More importantly, NSQIP Transplant provides a powerful platform to improve care beyond basic patient and graft survival.

Beyond death and graft survival-Variation in outcomes after kidney transplantation. Results from the NSQIP Transplant beta phase.

The National Surgical Quality Program (NSQIP) Transplant was designed by transplant surgeons from the ground up to track posttransplant outcomes beyond basic recipient and graft survival. After an initial pilot phase, the program has expanded to 29 participating sites and enrolled more than 4300 recipient-donor pairs into the database, including 2876 complete kidney transplant cases. In this analysis, surgical site infection (SSI), urinary tract infection (UTI), and reoperation/intervention were evaluated for kidney transplant recipients. We observed impressive variation in the crude incidence between sites for SSI (0%-17%), UTI (0%-14%), and reoperation/intervention (0%-25%). After adjustment for donor and recipient factors, 2 sites were outliers with respect to their incidence of UTI. For the first time, the field of transplantation has data that demonstrate variation in kidney recipient surgical outcomes between sites. More importantly, NSQIP Transplant provides a powerful platform to improve care beyond basic patient and graft survival.

Extent of surrounding edema does not correlate with acute complications after radiosurgery for melanoma brain metastases.

AIM: To assess whether extent of surrounding edema correlates with acute adverse clinical outcomes within 3 months after stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) for melanoma brain metastases (BM). METHODS: Patients with melanoma BM treated with SRS were included in a single center retrospective analysis. A contrast-enhanced magnetic resonance image (MRI) brain was acquired on the day of treatment and used to calculate the volume of the largest lesion (the index BM) and total volume of all BM. Their corresponding volume of surrounding edema was defined based on the fluid attenuated inversion recovery (FLAIR) sequence. After SRS, MRI was performed every 3 months for at least 2 years if the patient remained well enough to do so. Adverse neurologic events after SRS were defined using common terminology criteria for adverse events (CTCAE) version 5.0. Multivariate regression analyses assessed for associations between BM size and edema at baseline with increasing edema and neurologic adverse events within 3 months after SRS. RESULTS: Mean volume of the index BM reduced from 2.2 to 0.5 cm3 at 3 months after SRS (p = 0.03). Mean volume of edema surrounding the index BM was 6.4 cm3 at baseline, 10.2 cm3 at 3 months and 5.5 cm3 at 6 months. There were 7/43 (16%) patients that experienced an adverse neurological event within 3 months (attributable to any cause) and 4/43 (9%) were associated with an increase in BM edema. On univariate and multivariate analyses, there were no correlations between any baseline factors and volume of edema at 3 months. However, SRS dose delivered and systemic therapy use within 4 weeks of SRS both correlated with a reduction in edema surrounding the index BM. CONCLUSION: A transient increase in mean volume of edema was apparent at 3 months after SRS. However, this resolved by 6 months and did not correlate with adverse events or dexamethasone requirement. Thus, the clinical significance is uncertain.

Prevalence and Risk Factors for Bariatric Surgery Readmissions: Findings From 130,007 Admissions in the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate readmissions following laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (LAGB), laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG), and laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (LRYGB). BACKGROUND: Few studies have evaluated national readmission rates for primary bariatric surgery with national, bariatric-specific data. METHODS: Patients undergoing primary LAGB, LSG, or LRYGB from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2014, at 698 centers were identified based upon Current Procedural Terminology codes. The primary outcome was 30-day readmission from date of initial operation. RESULTS: A total of 130,007 patients who underwent primary bariatric surgery were identified: 7378 LAGB (5.7%), 80,646 LSG (62.0%), and 41,983 LRYGB (32.3%). A total of 5663 (4.4%) patients were readmitted within 30 days for all causes. Patients undergoing LAGB had the lowest related readmission rate of 1.4%, followed by LSG (2.8%), and LRYGB (4.9%). Of patients who had a complication, 17.9% (n = 785) were readmitted, whereas those without readmission had a complication 1.9% of the time (P < 0.001). The most common cause of a related readmission was nausea, vomiting, fluid, electrolyte, and nutritional depletion (35.4%), followed by abdominal pain (13.5%), anastomotic leak (6.4%), and bleeding (5.8%), accounting for more than 61% of readmissions. When compared with LAGB, LSG, and LRYGB had significantly higher rates of readmission (LSG: odds ratio 1.89; 95% confidence interval 1.52-2.33; LRYGB: odds ratio 3.06; 95% confidence interval 2.46-3.81). CONCLUSIONS: National bariatric readmissions after primary procedures were closely associated with complications, varied based on the type of procedure, and were most commonly due to nausea, vomiting, electrolyte, and nutritional depletion.

Hospital variation in rates of concurrent fundoplication during gastrostomy enteral access procedures.

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to determine whether (1) the propensity for concurrent fundoplication during gastrostomy varies among hospitals, and (2) postoperative morbidity differs among institutions performing fundoplication more or less frequently. METHODS: Children who underwent gastrostomy with or without concurrent fundoplication were identified in the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Pediatric (ACS-NSQIP-P). A hierarchical multivariate regression modeled the excess effects that hospitals exerted over propensity for concurrent fundoplication adjusting for preoperative clinical variables. Hospitals were designated as low outliers (significantly lower-adjusted odds of concurrent fundoplication than the average hospital with similar patient mix), average hospitals, and high outliers based on their risk-adjusted concurrent fundoplication practice. The postoperative morbidity rates were compared among low-outlier, average, and high-outlier hospitals. RESULTS: Between 2011 and 2013, 3775 children underwent gastrostomy at one of 54 ACS-NSQIP-P participating hospitals. The mean hospital concurrent fundoplication rate was 11.7% (range 0-64%). There was no significant difference in unadjusted morbidity rate in children with concurrent fundoplication, 11.0% compared to 9.7% in children without concurrent fundoplication. After controlling for clinical variables, 8 hospitals were identified as low outliers (fundoplication rate of 0.4%) and 16 hospitals were identified as high outliers (fundoplication rate of 34.6%). The average unadjusted morbidity rate among hospitals with low, average, and high odds of concurrent fundoplication were 9.6, 10.6, and 8.4%, respectively. CONCLUSION: Hospitals vary significantly in propensity for concurrent fundoplication during gastrostomy yet postoperative morbidity does not differ significantly among institutions performing fundoplication more or less frequently.

Outcomes of Concurrent Operations: Results From the American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program.

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether concurrently performed operations are associated with an increased risk for adverse events. BACKGROUND: Concurrent operations occur when a surgeon is simultaneously responsible for critical portions of 2 or more operations. How this practice affects patient outcomes is unknown. METHODS: Using American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Program data from 2014 to 2015, operations were considered concurrent if they overlapped by ≥60 minutes or in their entirety. Propensity-score-matched cohorts were constructed to compare death or serious morbidity (DSM), unplanned reoperation, and unplanned readmission in concurrent versus non-concurrent operations. Multilevel hierarchical regression was used to account for the clustered nature of the data while controlling for procedure and case mix. RESULTS: There were 1430 (32.3%) surgeons from 390 (77.7%) hospitals who performed 12,010 (2.3%) concurrent operations. Plastic surgery (n = 393 [13.7%]), otolaryngology (n = 470 [11.2%]), and neurosurgery (n = 2067 [8.4%]) were specialties with the highest proportion of concurrent operations. Spine procedures were the most frequent concurrent procedures overall (n = 2059/12,010 [17.1%]). Unadjusted rates of DSM (9.0% vs 7.1%; P < 0.001), reoperation (3.6% vs 2.7%; P < 0.001), and readmission (6.9% vs 5.1%; P < 0.001) were greater in the concurrent operation cohort versus the non-concurrent. After propensity score matching and risk-adjustment, there was no significant association of concurrence with DSM (odds ratio [OR] 1.08; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.96-1.21), reoperation (OR 1.16; 95% CI 0.96-1.40), or readmission (OR 1.14; 95% CI 0.99-1.29). CONCLUSIONS: In these analyses, concurrent operations were not detected to increase the risk for adverse outcomes. These results do not lessen the need for further studies, continuous self-regulation and proactive disclosure to patients.

Minimally invasive hepatopancreatobiliary surgery in North America: an ACS-NSQIP analysis of predictors of conversion for laparoscopic and robotic pancreatectomy and hepatectomy.

BACKGROUND: Procedural conversion rates represent an important aspect of the feasibility of minimally invasive surgical (MIS) approaches. This study aimed to outline the rates and predictors of procedural completion/conversion for MIS hepatectomy and pancreatectomy. METHODS: All 2014 ACS-NSQIP laparoscopic and robotic hepatectomy and pancreatectomy procedures were identified and grouped into pure, open assist, or unplanned conversion to open. Risk adjusted multinomial logistic regression models were generated with completion (Pure) set as the primary outcome. RESULTS: 1667 (laparoscopic = 1360, robotic = 307) resections were captured. After risk adjustment, robotic DP was associated with similar open assist (relative risk ratio -1.9%, P = 0.602), but lower unplanned conversion (-8.2%, P = 0.004) and open assist + unplanned conversion (-10.1%, P = 0.015) compared to laparoscopic DP; while robotic PD was associated with lower open assist (-22.2%, P < 0.001), unplanned conversions (-15%, P = 0.006) and open assist + unplanned conversions (-37.2, P < 0.001) compared to laparoscopic PD. The robotic and laparoscopic approaches to hepatectomy were not associated with differences in pure MIS completion rates (P = NS) after risk adjustment. CONCLUSIONS: The robotic approach to pancreatectomy was associated with higher rates of pure MIS completion compared to laparoscopy, whereas no difference in MIS completion rates was noted for robotic versus laparoscopic hepatectomy.

Pancreatoduodenectomy with venous or arterial resection: a NSQIP propensity score analysis.

INTRODUCTION: Vascular resection during pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) is being performed more frequently. Our aim was to analyze the outcomes of PD with and without vascular resection in a large, multicenter cohort. METHODS: Patient data were gathered from 43 institutions as part of the American College of Surgeons-National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) Pancreatectomy Demonstration Project. Over a 14-month period, 1414 patients underwent PD without (82.2%) or with major venous (PD + V; 13.7%) or arterial (PD + A; 4.0%) vascular resection. RESULTS: Postoperative morbidity and mortality following PD + A (51.0% and 3.6%) was comparable to PD + V (46.9% and 3.6%) and PD (44.3 and 1.5%, p = 0.50 and 0.43). A propensity score matched analysis revealed that vascular resection was associated with significant increases (p ≤ 0.05) in operative time (7:37 vs 6:11), need for blood transfusion (42.2% vs 18.1%), deep venous thromboembolism (6.9% vs 0.9%), postoperative septic shock (6.9% vs 1.7%), and length of stay (12.2 vs 10 days) while overall morbidity (45.7% vs 46.6) and mortality (1.0% vs 0%) were comparable. CONCLUSIONS: Compared to PD alone, PD + VR was associated with increased operative time, perioperative transfusions, deep venous thrombosis, septic shock, as well as length of stay, but overall morbidity and mortality were not increased.

On-demand Reporting of Risk-adjusted and Smoothed Rates for Quality Profiling in ACS NSQIP.

BACKGROUND: Surgical quality improvement depends on hospitals having accurate and timely information about comparative performance. Profiling accuracy is improved by risk adjustment and shrinkage adjustment to stabilize estimates. These adjustments are included in ACS NSQIP reports, where hospital odds ratios (OR) are estimated using hierarchical models built on contemporaneous data. However, the timeliness of feedback remains an issue. STUDY DESIGN: We describe an alternative, nonhierarchical approach, which yields risk- and shrinkage-adjusted rates. In contrast to our "Traditional" NSQIP method, this approach uses preexisting equations, built on historical data, which permits hospitals to have near immediate access to profiling results. We compared our traditional method to this new "on-demand" approach with respect to outlier determinations, kappa statistics, and correlations between logged OR and standardized rates, for 12 models (4 surgical groups by 3 outcomes). RESULTS: When both methods used the same contemporaneous data, there were similar numbers of hospital outliers and correlations between logged OR and standardized rates were high. However, larger differences were observed when the effect of contemporaneous versus historical data was added to differences in statistical methodology. CONCLUSIONS: The on-demand, nonhierarchical approach provides results similar to the traditional hierarchical method and offers immediacy, an "over-time" perspective, application to a broader range of models and data subsets, and reporting of more easily understood rates. Although the nonhierarchical method results are now available "on-demand" in a web-based application, the hierarchical approach has advantages, which support its continued periodic publication as the gold standard for hospital profiling in the program.