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Published in: Annals of Surgical Oncology 5/2024

Open Access 09-01-2024 | Pneumonectomy | Global Health Services Research

Variation in Hospital Mortality After Complex Cancer Surgery: Patient, Volume, Hospital or Social Determinants?

Authors: Muhammad Musaab Munir, MD, Selamawit Woldesenbet, MS, MPH, PhD, Yutaka Endo, MD, PhD, Mary Dillhoff, MD, Jordan Cloyd, MD, Aslam Ejaz, MD, Timothy M. Pawlik, MD, PhD, MPH, MTS, MBA, FACS, FRACS (Hon.)

Published in: Annals of Surgical Oncology | Issue 5/2024

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Abstract

Introduction

We sought to define the individual contributions of patient characteristics (PCs), hospital characteristics (HCs), case volume (CV), and social determinants of health (SDoH) on in-hospital mortality (IHM) after complex cancer surgery.

Methods

The California Department of Health Care Access and Information database identified patients who underwent esophagectomy (ES), pneumonectomy (PN), pancreatectomy (PD), or proctectomy (PR) for a malignant diagnosis between 2010 and 2020. Multi-level multivariable regression was performed to assess the proportion of variance explained by PCs, HCs, CV and SDoH on IHM.

Results

A total of 52,838 patients underwent cancer surgery (ES: n = 2,700, 5.1%; PN: n = 30,822, 58.3%; PD: n = 7530, 14.3%; PR: n = 11,786, 22.3%) across 294 hospitals. The IHM for the overall cohort was 1.7% and varied from 4.4% for ES to 0.8% for PR. On multivariable regression, PCs contributed the most to the variance in IHM (overall: 32.0%; ES: 21.6%; PN: 28.0%; PD: 20.3%; PR: 39.9%). Among the overall cohort, CV contributed 2.4%, HCs contributed 1.3%, and SDoH contributed 1.2% to the variation in IHM. CV was the second highest contributor to IHM among ES (5.3%), PN (5.3%), and PD (5.9%); however, HCs were a more important contributor among patients who underwent PR (8.0%). The unexplained variance in IHM was highest among ES (72.4%), followed by the PD (67.5%) and PN (64.6%) patient groups.

Conclusions

PCs are the greatest underlying contributor to variations in IHM following cancer surgery. These data highlight the need to focus on optimizing patients and exploring unexplained sources of IHM to improve quality of surgical care.
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Metadata
Title
Variation in Hospital Mortality After Complex Cancer Surgery: Patient, Volume, Hospital or Social Determinants?
Authors
Muhammad Musaab Munir, MD
Selamawit Woldesenbet, MS, MPH, PhD
Yutaka Endo, MD, PhD
Mary Dillhoff, MD
Jordan Cloyd, MD
Aslam Ejaz, MD
Timothy M. Pawlik, MD, PhD, MPH, MTS, MBA, FACS, FRACS (Hon.)
Publication date
09-01-2024
Publisher
Springer International Publishing
Published in
Annals of Surgical Oncology / Issue 5/2024
Print ISSN: 1068-9265
Electronic ISSN: 1534-4681
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-023-14852-y

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