Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31075135›Full record

ArticlePloS one2019

Should we pay attention to surgeon or hospital volume in total knee arthroplasty? Evidence from a nationwide population-based study.

Tsung-Hsien Yu, Ying-Yi Chou, Yu-Chi Tung

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
11citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.8field-weighted citation impact, top 7% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

11 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 20 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Hospital volume-outcome relationship in total knee arthroplasty: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis.Knee surgery, sports traumatology, arthroscopy : official journal of the ESSKA · 2022
    Pooled it
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  4. Review
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  6. How much is enough for total knee arthroplasty?BMJ surgery, interventions, & health technologies · 2021
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Tsung-Hsien YuDepartment of Health Care Management, National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Sciences, Taipei, Taiwan.
Ying-Yi ChouInstitute of Health Policy and Management, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
Yu-Chi TungInstitute of Health Policy and Management, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.ORCID 0000-0001-9031-8749
National Taiwan University · TWNational Taipei University of Nursing and Health Science · TW

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundAlthough prior research into the relationship between volume and outcome indicates that this relationship is not linear and that an optimal volume should be specified, consensus is lacking regarding the ideal value of this optimal volume. The purposes of this study were to use a visual method to identify surgeon- and hospital-volume thresholds and to examine the relationships of surgeon and hospital volume thresholds to 30-day readmission.

methodsA retrospective nationwide population-based study design was adopted. Patients who received total knee replacement surgery between 2007 and 2008 in any hospital in Taiwan were included. After adjusting for patient, physician, and hospital characteristics, a restricted cubic spline regression model was used to identify optimal surgeon- and hospital-volume thresholds. Further, a patient-level mixed effect model was conducted to test the respective relationships between these thresholds and 30-day readmission.

resultsA total of 30,828 patients who had received their surgeries from 1,468 surgeons in 437 hospitals were included in this study. Thresholds of 50 cases a year for surgeons and 75 cases a year for hospitals were identified using a restricted cubic spline regression model. However, only the surgeon volume threshold was associated with 30-day readmission using a patient-level mixed effect model after adjusting for patient-, surgeon- and hospital-level covariates.

conclusionsAccording to the results of the restricted cubic spline models, the optimal volume thresholds for surgeons and hospitals are 50 cases and 75 cases a year, respectively. However, only the surgeon volume threshold is associated with 30-day readmission.

Indexed as

AgedArthroplasty, Replacement, KneeFemaleHospitals, High-VolumeHumansMalePatient ReadmissionRetrospective StudiesSurgeonsTreatment OutcomeWorkload

Identifiers

PMID31075135
PMCPMC6510420
OpenAlexW2944042063

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.