Influence of Individual Surgeon Volume on Oncological Outcome of Colorectal Cancer Surgery

Abstract

Background. Surgery performed by a high-volume surgeon improves short-term outcomes. However, not much is known about long-term effects. Therefore we performed the current study to evaluate the impact of high-volume colorectal surgeons on survival. Methods. We conducted a retrospective analysis of our prospectively collected colorectal cancer database between 2004 and 2011. Patients were divided into two groups: operated on by a high-volume surgeon (>25 cases/year) or by a low-volume surgeon (<25 cases/year). Perioperative data were collected as well as follow-up, recurrence rates, and survival data. Results. 774 patients underwent resection for colorectal malignancies. Thirteen low-volume surgeons operated on 453 patients and 4 high-volume surgeons operated on 321 patients. Groups showed an equal distribution for preoperative characteristics, except a higher ASA-classification in the low-volume group. A high-volume surgeon proved to be an independent prognostic factor for disease-free survival in the multivariate analysis P=0.04. Although overall survival did show a significant difference in the univariate analysis P<0.001 it failed to reach statistical significance in the multivariate analysis P=0.09. Conclusions. In our study, a higher number of colorectal cases performed per surgeon were associated with longer disease-free survival. Implementing high-volume surgery results in improved long-term outcome following colorectal cancer.