BACKGROUND: Postoperative mortality plays an important role in evaluating the surgical safety of esophagectomy. Although postoperative mortality after esophagectomy is partly influenced by the yearly hospital surgical case volume (hospital volume), this association remains unclear.
METHODS: Studies assessing the association between hospital volume and postoperative mortality in patients who underwent esophagectomy for esophageal cancer were searched for eligibility. Odds ratios were pooled for the highest versus lowest categories of hospital volume using a random effects model. The dose-response association between hospital volume and the risk of postoperative mortality was analyzed. The study protocol was registered with PROSPERO.
RESULTS: Fifty-six studies including 385 469 participants were included. A higher-volume hospital significantly reduced the risk of postesophagectomy mortality by 53% compared with their lower-volume counterparts (odds ratio, 0.47; 95% CI: 0.42-0.53). Similar results were found in subgroup analyses. Volume-outcome analysis suggested that postesophagectomy mortality rates remained roughly stable after the hospital volume reached a plateau of 45 esophagectomies per year.
CONCLUSIONS: Higher-volume hospitals had significantly lower postesophagectomy mortality rates in patients with esophageal cancer, with a threshold of 45 esophagectomies per year for a high-volume hospital. This remarkable negative correlation showed the benefit of a better safety in centralization of esophagectomy to a high-volume hospital.

BACKGROUND: Validity of the laparoscopic approach in pancreatic head lesion remains debatable. This study aims to compare the safety and effectiveness of laparoscopic pancreatoduodenectomy (LPD) and open pancreatoduodenectomy (OPD) and investigate the source of heterogeneity from surgeons\' and patients\' perspectives.
METHODS: We searched PubMed, Cochrane, Embase, and Web of Science for studies published before February 1, 2021. Of 6578 articles, 81 were full-text reviewed. The primary outcome was mortality. Three independent reviewers screened and extracted the data and resolved disagreements by consensus. Studies were evaluated for quality using ROB2.0 and ROBINS-I. According to different study designs, sensitivity and meta-regression analyses were conducted to explore the heterogeneity source. This meta-analyses was also conducted to explore the learning curve\'s heterogeneity. This study was registered with PROSPERO, CRD42021234579.
RESULTS: We analyzed 34 studies involving 46,729 patients (4705 LPD and 42,024 OPD). LPD was associated with lower (P = 0.025) in unmatched studies (P = 0.017). No differences in mortality existed in randomized controlled trials (P = 0.854) and matched studies (P = 0.726). Sensitivity analysis found no significant difference in mortality in elderly patients, patients with pancreatic cancer, and in high- and low-volume hospitals (all P > 0.05). In studies at the early period of LPD (<40 cases), higher mortality (P < 0.001) was found (all P < 0.05).LPD showed non-inferiority in length of stay, complications, and survival outcomes in all analyses.
CONCLUSIONS: In high-volume centers with adequate surgical experience, LPD in selected patients appears to be a valid alternative to LPD with comparable mortality, LOS, complications, and survival outcomes.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has strained the healthcare systems across the world but its impact on acute stroke care is just being elucidated. We hypothesized a major global impact of COVID-19 not only on stroke volumes but also on various aspects of thrombectomy systems.
OBJECTIVE: We conducted a convenience electronic survey with a 21-item questionnaire aimed to identify the changes in stroke admission volumes and thrombectomy treatment practices seen during a specified time period of the COVID-19 pandemic.
METHODS: The survey was designed using Qualtrics software and sent to stroke and neuro-interventional physicians around the world who are part of the Global Executive Committee (GEC) of Mission Thrombectomy 2020, a global coalition under the aegis of Society of Vascular and Interventional Neurology, between April 5th and May 15th, 2020.
RESULTS: There were 113 responses to the survey across 25 countries with a response rate of 31% among the GEC members. Globally there was a median 33% decrease in stroke admissions and a 25% decrease in mechanical thrombectomy (MT) procedures during the COVID-19 pandemic period until May 15th, 2020 compared to pre-pandemic months. The intubation policy for MT procedures during the pandemic was highly variable across participating centers: 44% preferred intubating all patients, including 25% of centers that changed their policy to preferred-intubation (PI) from preferred non-intubation (PNI). On the other hand, 56% centers preferred not intubating patients undergoing MT, which included 27% centers that changed their policy from PI to PNI. There was no significant difference in rate of COVID-19 infection between PI versus PNI centers (p=0.60) or if intubation policy was changed in either direction (p=1.00). Low-volume (<10 stroke/month) compared with high-volume stroke centers (>20 strokes/month) were less likely to have neurointerventional suite specific written personal protective equipment protocols (74% vs 88%) and if present, these centers were more likely to report them to be inadequate (58% vs 92%).
CONCLUSIONS: Our data provides a comprehensive snapshot of the impact on acute stroke care observed worldwide during the pandemic. Overall, respondents reported decreased stroke admissions as well as decreased cases of MT with no clear preponderance in intubation policy during MT.
UNASSIGNED: The corresponding author will consider requests for sharing survey data. The study was exempt from institutional review board approval as it did not involve patient level data.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to profound changes in the organization of health care systems worldwide.
We sought to measure the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the volumes for mechanical thrombectomy, stroke, and intracranial hemorrhage hospitalizations over a three-month period at the height of the pandemic (1 March-31 May 2020) compared with two control three-month periods (immediately preceding and one year prior).
Retrospective, observational, international study, across 6 continents, 40 countries, and 187 comprehensive stroke centers. The diagnoses were identified by their ICD-10 codes and/or classifications in stroke databases at participating centers.
The hospitalization volumes for any stroke, intracranial hemorrhage, and mechanical thrombectomy were 26,699, 4002, and 5191 in the three months immediately before versus 21,576, 3540, and 4533 during the first three pandemic months, representing declines of 19.2% (95%CI, -19.7 to -18.7), 11.5% (95%CI, -12.6 to -10.6), and 12.7% (95%CI, -13.6 to -11.8), respectively. The decreases were noted across centers with high, mid, and low COVID-19 hospitalization burden, and also across high, mid, and low volume stroke/mechanical thrombectomy centers. High-volume COVID-19 centers (-20.5%) had greater declines in mechanical thrombectomy volumes than mid- (-10.1%) and low-volume (-8.7%) centers (p < 0.0001). There was a 1.5% stroke rate across 54,366 COVID-19 hospitalizations. SARS-CoV-2 infection was noted in 3.9% (784/20,250) of all stroke admissions.
The COVID-19 pandemic was associated with a global decline in the volume of overall stroke hospitalizations, mechanical thrombectomy procedures, and intracranial hemorrhage admission volumes. Despite geographic variations, these volume reductions were observed regardless of COVID-19 hospitalization burden and pre-pandemic stroke/mechanical thrombectomy volumes.

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a simple laparoscopic common bile duct exploration (LCBDE) simulator and corresponding practicing program on the application of performing LCBDE in a low volume center.
METHODS: A retrospective review was performed by analyzing data from the electronic medical record for 4118 patients with choledocholithiasis in Changxing County Hospital (Huzhou, Zhejiang, China) between January 2013 and December 2018. From January 2016, we have developed a simple LCBDE-specific simulator and corresponding practicing program in our hospital. The percentage of patients with choledocholithiasis managed by LCBDE before and after the introduction of a simple LCBDE-specific simulator and corresponding practicing program was compared.
RESULTS: There were 8.9% (367/4118) patients with a diagnosis of choledocholithiasis confirmed by MRCP. Single-stage management with LC+LCBDE was performed in 23.7% (87/367) patients. Among them, 23 cases were performed between January 2013 and December 2015, and 64 cases were performed between January 2016 and December 2018. The introduction of simulator-enhanced practicing program in January 2016 has resulted in an increase in the percentage of performed LCBDE, from 12.9% to 33.9%. In addition, there was an 29.5% reduction in the mean operating time (from 193 min to 136 min) needed for LCBDE with T-tube when compared these two periods.
CONCLUSIONS: LCBDE simulator can improve the application in a low volume center, and help to increase the utilization of this effective, one stage treatment for choledocholithiasis and reduce the need for costlier ERCP.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) and surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) are standard procedures for dealing with severe aortic stenosis patients. Researchers have not carried out a systematic review of the volume-outcome relationship in TAVR and SAVR. Our study is intended to address this problem. We systemically searched databases through MEDLINE, EMBASE, PUBMED, and the Cochrane Library up to September 2019. Two reviewers independently screened for the studies and evaluated bias. We used short-term mortality (in-hospital or 30-day mortality) as an outcome. A meta-analysis of TAVR with 115,596 patients ranging from 2005 to 2016 showed a result significantly in favor of high-volume hospitals (OR 0.43 (CI 0.36-0.51)). The subgroup of population period, region, data type, and cut-off value did not show any difference. A meta-analysis of SAVR comprising 418,384 patients ranging from 1994 to 2011 revealed that the OR of short-term mortality for a high-volume hospital compared with that of a low-volume hospital was 0.73 (CI 0.71, 0.74). No difference was observed in subgroups based on population period and cut-off. In conclusion, we found that short-term mortality was lower in high-volume hospitals for both TAVR and SAVR.

暂无摘要。

The aim of the study is to evaluate the safety and efficacy of simultaneous endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) for multiple early gastric cancers.A total of 70 solitary early gastric cancers from 70 patients and 20 multiple early gastric cancers from 10 patients were included in this retrospective study. The curative resection rate, en bloc resection rate, procedure-related complications, and local recurrence were compared between the 2 groups.There was no statistical difference in the rate of complete resection, en bloc resection, and curative resection between the 2 groups (P > .05). No significant difference was found with respect to the occurrence of postoperative bleeding (P > .05). Procedure time was significantly longer in the simultaneous group than that in the single group (87.6 ± 25.1 min vs 54.6 ± 22.0 min, P = .004). The overall incidence of synchronous early gastric cancer was 7.5%.Simultaneous ESD for multiple early gastric cancers is a safe and feasible choice in low-volume hospital. The entire stomach should be examined meticulously during and after ESD. Larger randomized studies are needed to validate our results.

OBJECTIVE: The ERCP volume in developed countries has decreased recently, whereas the ERCP trend is unknown in developing countries. This study aimed to evaluate the ERCP development in China between 2006 and 2012.
METHODS: All hospitals performing ERCP in mainland China in 2012 participated in an online survey. Data on ERCP infrastructure, volume, indication, and adverse events were collected and compared with those in a previous national survey and in developed countries.
RESULTS: From 2006 to 2012 the number of hospitals performing ERCP in China increased from 470 to 1156. The total ERCP volume increased from 63,787 to 195,643, of which >95% were therapeutic. The ERCP rate in China (14.4 per 100,000 inhabitants) in 2012 was still much lower than that in developed countries. There was significant imbalance between different regions (1.3-99.1 per 100,000 inhabitants). The median ERCP volume per hospital decreased from 80 (interquartile range [IQR], 31-150) in 2006 to 52 (IQR, 20-146) in 2012. The median volume of the 686 hospitals that started ERCP after 2006 was 31.5 (IQR, 11-82). The post-ERCP adverse event rate in 2012 was comparable between hospitals in terms of volume (≥500 or <500 per year: 5.8% vs 5.6%) and practice durations (starting ERCP before or after 2006: 5.5% vs 5.6%).
CONCLUSIONS: ERCP has developed considerably in China in recent years. Despite low annual volume, the hospitals starting ERCP after 2006 have acceptable adverse event rates and will be promising and important sources of ERCP development in China.

Previous reviews have suggested that hospital volume is inversely related to in-hospital mortality. However, percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) practices have changed substantially in recent years, and whether this relationship persists remains controversial.A systematic search was performed using PubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library to identify studies that describe the effect of hospital volume on the outcomes of PCI. Critical appraisals of the methodological quality and the risk of bias were conducted independently by 2 authors. Fourteen of 96 potentiality relevant articles were included in the analysis. Twelve of the articles described the relationship between hospital volume and mortality and included data regarding odds ratios (ORs); 3 studies described the relationship between hospital volume and long-term survival, and only 1 study included data regarding hazard ratios (HRs). A meta-analysis of postoperative mortality was performed using a random effects model, and the pooled effect estimate was significantly in favor of high volume providers (OR: 0.79; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72-0.86; P < 0.001). A systematic review of long-term survival was performed, and a trend toward better long-term survival in high volume hospitals was observed.This meta-analysis only included studies published after 2006 and revealed that postoperative mortality following PCI correlates significantly and inversely with hospital volume. However, the magnitude of the effect of volume on long-term survival is difficult to assess. Additional research is necessary to confirm our findings and to elucidate the mechanism underlying the volume-outcome relationship.