JAMA surgery
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Comparative Study
Risk and patterns of secondary complications in surgical inpatients.
Little empirical evidence exists on how a first (index) complication influences the risk of specific subsequent secondary complications. Understanding these risks is important to elucidate clinical pathways of failure to rescue or death after postoperative complication. ⋯ This investigation quantified the effect of index complications on patient risk of specific secondary complications. The defined pathways merit investigation as unique targets for quality improvement and benchmarking.
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Comparative Study
Care fragmentation in the postdischarge period: surgical readmissions, distance of travel, and postoperative mortality.
Despite policies aimed at incentivizing clinical integration, few data exist on whether fragmentation of care is associated with worse outcomes for elderly patients undergoing major surgery. ⋯ Of older US patients undergoing major surgery, 1 in 4 is readmitted to a hospital other than the one where the initial operation was performed. Even taking distance traveled into account, postsurgical care fragmentation is associated with a substantially higher risk of death. Focusing on clinical integration may improve outcomes for older US patients undergoing complex surgery.
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Accredited breast centers in the United States are measured on performance of breast conservation surgery (BCS) in the majority of women with early-stage breast cancer. Prior research in regional and limited national cohorts suggests a recent shift toward increasing performance of mastectomy in patients eligible for BCS. ⋯ In the past decade, there have been marked trends toward higher proportions of BCS-eligible patients undergoing mastectomy, breast reconstruction, and bilateral mastectomy. The greatest increases are seen in women with node-negative and in situ disease. Mastectomy rates do not yet exceed current American Cancer Society/American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer accreditation benchmarks. Further research is needed to understand factors associated with these trends and their implications for performance measurement in American Cancer Society/American College of Surgeons Commission on Cancer centers.
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Multicenter Study
Lobectomy, sublobar resection, and stereotactic ablative radiotherapy for early-stage non-small cell lung cancers in the elderly.
The incidence of early-stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) among the elderly is expected to rise dramatically owing to demographic trends and increased computed tomographic screening. However, to our knowledge, no modern trials have compared the most common treatments for NSCLC. ⋯ Lobectomy was associated with better outcomes than sublobar resection in elderly patients with early-stage NSCLC. Propensity score matching suggests that SABR may be a good option among patients with very advanced age and multiple comorbidities.
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study
Comparative effectiveness of laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding vs laparoscopic gastric bypass.
Laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and laparoscopic adjustable gastric banding (AGB) are 2 of the most commonly performed bariatric procedures worldwide. However, few large, multisite studies have directly compared the benefits and harms of these procedures. ⋯ In this large bariatric cohort from 10 health care systems, we found that RYGB resulted in much greater weight loss than AGB but had a higher risk of short-term complications and long-term subsequent hospitalizations. On the other hand, RYGB patients had a lower risk of long-term subsequent intervention procedures than AGB patients. Bariatric surgery candidates should be well informed of these benefits and risks when they make their decisions about treatment.