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Fred G. Barker, Anne Klibanski, Brooke Swearingen, Transsphenoidal Surgery for Pituitary Tumors in the United States, 1996–2000: Mortality, Morbidity, and the Effects of Hospital and Surgeon Volume, The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, Volume 88, Issue 10, 1 October 2003, Pages 4709–4719, https://doi.org/10.1210/jc.2003-030461
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Abstract
Larger surgical caseload is associated with better patient outcome for many complex procedures. We examined the volume-outcome relationship for transsphenoidal pituitary tumor surgery using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample, 1996–2000. Multivariate regression adjusted for patient demographics, acuity measures, medical comorbidities, and endocrine status.
A total of 5497 operations were performed at 538 hospitals by 825 surgeons. Outcome measured at hospital discharge was: death (0.6%), discharge to long-term care (0.9%), to short-term rehabilitation (2.1%), or directly home (96.2%). Outcomes were better after surgery at higher-volume hospitals (OR 0.74 for 5-fold-larger caseload, P = 0.007) or by higher-volume surgeons (OR 0.62, P = 0.02). A total of 5.4% of patients were not discharged directly home from lowest-volume-quartile hospitals, compared with 2.6% at highest-volume-quartile hospitals. In-hospital mortality was lower with higher-volume hospitals (P = 0.03) and surgeons (P = 0.09). Mortality rates were 0.9% at lowest-caseload-quartile hospitals and 0.4% at highest-volume-quartile hospitals. Postoperative complications (26.5% of admissions) were less frequent with higher-volume hospitals (P = 0.03) or surgeons (P = 0.005). Length of stay was shorter with high-volume hospitals (P = 0.02) and surgeons (P < 0.001). Hospital charges were lower for high-volume hospitals, but not significantly.
This analysis suggests that higher-volume hospitals and surgeons provide superior short-term outcomes after transsphenoidal pituitary tumor surgery with shorter lengths of stay and a trend toward lower charges.
