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WEDNESDAY, May 21 (HealthDay News) -- New studies show that numerous factors -- such as the number of operations done by a surgeon or at a hospital -- affect patient outcomes for various surgical procedures.
The findings were to be presented Wednesday at the Digestive Diseases Week 2008 meeting, in San Diego.
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"Past research has indicated that success rates for procedures are influenced by the volume of that procedure performed at a center. As researchers and medical professionals, we are constantly striving to understand the factors that determine whether a patient has a successful outcome," Dr. Marcia R. Cruz-Correa, an associate professor of medicine and biochemistry at the University of Puerto Rico, Comprehensive Cancer Center, said in a prepared statement.
"The research presented [at the meeting] sheds new light on our understanding of the influences of high-volume vs. low-volume hospitals or surgeons, as well as the influences of demographics such as patient's race, location or insurance coverage," Cruz-Correa said.
A University of Michigan Medical School study that examined patient outcomes after liver resection found that death rates were lower when operations were performed by high-volume surgeons at high volume centers. There was no improved survival associated with high-volume centers or high-volume surgeons alone.
In addition, private insurance and elective admission type also significantly decreased the risk of in-hospital death, said the researchers, who examined in-hospital death rates among more than 3,000 patients who had liver resections in the United States between 1998 and 2005.
A second study found that hospitals with a high annual volume of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) had lower death rates among IBD patients who had surgery and had shorter post-surgery stays for patients with Crohn's disease.
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