Fewer Gastrointestinal Surgery Deaths in Teaching Hospitals

Researchers have found that the death rates for some complex gastrointestinal surgical procedures are lower at teaching hospitals than at nonteaching hospitals. The findings were published in the February 2004 issue of The Archives of Surgery.

Teaching hospitals are responsible for the training of surgical residents and, at university-affiliated centers, the education of medical students. Patients may be concerned that having surgical residents or medical students participate in their care might result in worse outcomes, compared to nonteaching hospitals.

Researchers examined data from patients undergoing esophageal resection, hepatic resection, or pancreactic resection. The results showed that none of the procedures had higher death rates at teaching hospitals. Death rates for teaching hospitals versus nonteaching hospitals were 4% vs. 8.8% for pancreatic resection; 5.3% vs. 8% for hepatic resection; and 7.7% vs. 10.2% for esophageal resection.

"Specifically, teaching hospitals have lower operative mortality rates for pancreatic, hepatic, and esophageal resections, compared with nonteaching hospitals, but these differences can be attributed to higher volume at teaching hospitals,” said Justin B. Dimick, M.D., of the University of Michigan Medical Center (Ann Arbor, USA).



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