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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – In the January issue of Diseases of the Colon & Rectum, surgeons from 3 large universities (Pennsylvania State, Temple and Columbia) examined outcomes of patients undergoing emergency colon surgery at their institutions. They wanted to find out whether there was a difference in outcomes when surgery was performed by a general surgeon, a surgeon specializing in emergency surgery, or a colon surgery specialist. In order to avoid biasing the study, patients operated on by different groups of surgeons were “matched” so that there was no difference in the severity of their illness or in the number of other health problems in patients between groups.
Nearly 900 emergency colon operations were identified. Approximately one-third of these procedures were performed by general surgeons or surgeons specializing in emergency surgery with the remaining two-thirds being performed by colon and rectal surgeons. After matching of patients to adjust for disease severity and comorbidity, the authors of this study noted that fewer patients died within 30 days of surgery, had fewer major postoperative complications, and fewer needed reoperation when the surgery was performed by a colorectal surgeon. In addition, these patients also had a shorter hospital stay.
Lead author Dr. Kulayat emphasized that additional studies are needed to evaluate these findings at both other institutions and other types of institutions such as community hospitals.
Citation: Kulaylat AS, Pappou E, Philp MM, Kuritzkes BA, Ortenzi G, Hollenbeak CS, Choi C, Messaris E. Emergent Colon Resections: Does Surgeon Specialization Influence Outcomes? Diseases of the Colon & Rectum: January 2019 – Volume 62 – Issue 1 – p 79–87
For a copy of the publication, please contact Managing Editor of Diseases of the Colon and Rectum Margaret Abby at [email protected]