Researchers have found a clear correlation between the number of operations performed per year in a hospital and the chance of survival when treating colorectal carcinomas.
A study published in BJS Open found that hospitals performing few operations on colorectal carcinomas (an average of six per year) had a post-operative mortality rate twice as high as in hospitals with large case numbers (an average of 50 per year).
Dr. Armin Wiegering, head of the Visceral Oncology Centre, at the University Hospital of Würzburg, in Bavaria, explained that this difference was not due to the fact that complications occur more often in smaller hospitals; rather, the difference is that patients in small hospitals are more likely to die from the complications. “In large hospitals, on the other hand, there is a sufficient infrastructure to save patients in the event of post-operative complications,” she commented.
