JAMA surgery
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The US Food and Drug Administration recently approved the use of a transcatheter aortic valve in patients for whom traditional valve replacement surgery poses a high or prohibitive risk. Our hospital was one of the first Veterans Affairs facilities to launch a transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) program. ⋯ Transcatheter aortic valve replacement can be performed safely and with good outcomes at a Veterans Affairs facility with a committed multidisciplinary team and substantial experience in heart valve and endovascular therapies.
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IMPORTANCE It is not known whether hospital and surgeon volumes have an association with readmission among patients undergoing pancreatoduodenectomy. ⋯ Nearly 1 in 5 patients are readmitted following pancreatoduodenectomy. While variation in readmission is, in part, attributable to differences among hospitals, the largest share of variation was found at the patient level.