• José M Ramia, Cándido F Alcázar-López, Celia Villodre-Tudela, Juan J Rubio-García, Belén Hernández, Daniel Aparicio-López, Mario Serradilla-Martín, and SPANDISPAN Collaborative Study Group.
• From the Department of Surgery, Hospital General Universitario Dr Balmis, Alicante, Spain (Ramia, Alcázar-López, Villodre-Tudela, Rubio-García).
• J. Am. Coll. Surg. 2024 Sep 1; 239 (3): 288297288-297.

BackgroundImproving the quality of care is a priority for health systems to obtain better care and reduce costs. One of the tools for measuring quality is benchmarking (BM). We presented a 1-country prospective study of distal pancreatectomies (DPs) and determined BM.Study DesignProspective, multicenter, observational snapshot study of DP carried out at Spanish hepatopancreatobiliary centers for a year (February 1, 2022, to January 31, 2023). Hepatopancreatobiliary centers were defined as high volume if they performed more than 10 DPs per year. Inclusion criteria include any scheduled DP for any diagnosis and age older than 18 years. The low-risk group was defined following the criteria given by Durin and colleagues and major complications as Clavien-Dindo ≥III.ResultsA total of 313 patients from 42 centers and 46.6% from high-volume centers were included. Median DP by center was 7 (interquartile range 5 to 10), median age was 65 years (interquartile range 55 to 74), and 53.4% were female. The surgical approach was minimally invasive in 69.3%. Major complications were 21.1%. Postoperative pancreatic fistula grade B/C rate was 20.1%, and 90-day mortality was 1.6%. One hundred forty-three patients were in low-risk group (43.8%). Compared with previous BM data, an increasing MIS rate and fewer hospital stay were obtained.ConclusionsWe present the first determination of DP-BM in a prospective series, obtaining similar results to the previous ones, but our BM values include a shorter hospital stay and a higher percentage of minimally invasive surgery probably related to Enhanced Recovery after Surgery protocols and prospective data collection. BM is a multiparameter valuable tool for reporting outcomes, comparing centers, and identifying the points to improve surgical care.Copyright © 2024 by the American College of Surgeons. Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. All rights reserved.

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