Older patients who need high-risk surgery fare better in experienced...( Hanover NH - Going to hospitals experi...),Health

Hanover, NH - Going to hospitals experienced in certain high-risk surgeries can help save lives for elderly undergoing those procedures, a Dartmouth Medical School study confirmed. Older patients who had any of 14 high-risk cardiovascular or cancer operations in hospitals highly experienced with their particular procedure were more likely to survive than those who went to less-experienced hospitals, according to the nationwide study, published April 11 in The New England Journal of Medicine. The research, sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), was led by John D. Birkmeyer, MD, associate professor of surgery and a general surgeon at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

The most experienced hospitals are those with the highest volume of procedures. Going to one made the biggest difference for patients undergoing surgery for cancer of the pancreas: only 3.8 percent of such patients at the highest volume hospitals died, compared to 16.3 percent at lowest volume hospitals - a 12.5 percentage point variance. Death rates differed to a similar degree for patients undergoing surgery for cancer of the esophagus (8 percent at highest volume hospitals vs. 20 percent at lowest volume hospitals).

The Dartmouth study also found that older patients fared better at high volume hospitals when undergoing heart valve replacement, abdominal aneurysm repair, and surgery for lung, stomach or bladder cancer. For each of these procedures, death rates at the highest volume hospitals were between two percent and five percent lower than at the lowest volume hospitals. Hospital volume was least important for patients having coronary artery bypass surgery, carotid endarterectomy (an operation to prevent stroke) and surgery for colon or kidney cancer; death rates at highest and lowest volume hospitals differed by less than two percentage points. Each year in the US more than 20,000 elderly patients die undergoing one of these 14 high-risk operations tha
'"/>

Contact: Steve Snyder
steve.snyder@dartmouth.edu
603-650-1492
Dartmouth Medical School
11-Apr-2002

Page: 1 2
Related medicine news :

1. Older women can benefit from chemotherapy to treat breast cancer
2. Older doctors less likely to follow current standards of care
3. Older people get the big picture faster, and they are less inhibited
4. Older people with the Alzheimers gene find it harder to remember to remember even if healthy
5. Older patients with chronic kidney disease are costly as they transition to dialysis
6. Older patients less likely to receive care in the ICU
7. Older people recover from disabling events at higher rate than previously thought
8. Older people lose out all round in breast cancer treatment and care
9. Older patients need special attention in the dental chair
10. Older prostate cancer patients may face age bias
11. Older people and their homes