Evidence map›Paper›PMID 32762615›Full record

ArticleJournal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology2020

Volume Pledge is Not Associated with Better Short-Term Outcomes After Lung Cancer Resection.

Farhood Farjah, Maria V Grau-Sepulveda, Henning Gaissert, Mark Block, Eric Grogan, Lisa M Brown, Andrzej S Kosinski, Benjamin D Kozower

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
13citing papers in PubMed
2.7field-weighted citation impact, top 8% 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

13 citing papers in PubMed, 28 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. Article
  5. Surgeon Quality and Patient Survival After Resection for Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2023
    Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Keeping a Safe Distance From Surgical Volume Standards.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2022
    Article
  12. Article
  13. Volume-Based Care Regionalization: Pitfalls and Challenges.Journal of clinical oncology : official journal of the American Society of Clinical Oncology · 2020
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 8 institutions in 1 country.

Farhood FarjahDepartment of Surgery, University of Washington, Seattle, WA.ORCID 0000-0002-5205-3804
Maria V Grau-SepulvedaDuke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, NC.
Henning GaissertDivision of Thoracic Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA.
Mark BlockDivision of Thoracic Surgery, Memorial Healthcare System, Hollywood, FL.ORCID 0000-0002-6885-0584
Eric GroganDepartment of Thoracic Surgery, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN.
Lisa M BrownSection of General Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgery, University of California Davis Health, Sacramento, CA.
Andrzej S KosinskiDuke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, NC.ORCID 0000-0003-4151-5185
Benjamin D KozowerDepartment of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO.
Clinical Research Institute · USDuke University · USHarvard University · USMemorial Healthcare System · USUniversity of California, Davis · USUniversity of Washington · USVanderbilt University Medical Center · USWashington University in St. Louis · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeWe examined the relationship between short-term outcomes and hospitals and surgeons who met minimum volume thresholds for lung cancer resection based on definitions provided by the Volume Pledge. A secondary aim was to evaluate the volume-outcome relationship to determine alternative thresholds in the event the Volume Pledge was not associated with outcomes. PATIENTS AND

methodsWe conducted a retrospective study (2015-2017) using the Society of Thoracic Surgeons General Thoracic Surgery Database. We used generalized estimating equations that accounted for confounding and clustering to compare outcomes across hospitals and surgeons who did and did not meet the Volume Pledge criteria: ≥ 40 patients per year for hospitals and ≥ 20 patients per year for surgeons. Our secondary aim was to model volume by using restricted cubic splines to determine the association between volume and short-term outcomes.

resultsAmong 32,183 patients, 465 surgeons, and 209 hospitals, 16,630 patients (52%) received care from both a hospital and surgeon meeting the Volume Pledge criteria. After adjustment, there was no relationship with operative mortality, complications, major morbidity, a major morbidity-mortality composite end point, or failure to rescue. The Volume Pledge group had a 0.5 day (95% CI, 0.2 to 0.7 day) shorter length of stay. Our secondary aim revealed a nonlinear relationship between hospital volume and complications in which intermediate-volume hospitals had the highest risk of complications. Surgeon volume was associated with major morbidity, a major morbidity-mortality composite end point, and length of stay in an inverse linear fashion. Only 8% of surgeons had volumes associated with better outcomes.

conclusionThe Volume Pledge was not associated with better outcomes except for a marginally shorter length of stay. A re-examination of volume-outcome relationships for hospitals and surgeons yielded mixed results that did not reveal a practical alternative for volume-based quality improvement efforts.

Indexed as

AgedCohort StudiesFemaleHospitals, High-VolumeHumansLung NeoplasmsMaleMiddle AgedOutcome Assessment, Health CarePulmonary Surgical ProceduresRetrospective StudiesSurgeonsSurgical OncologyTreatment Outcome

Identifiers

PMID32762615
OpenAlexW3048325245

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
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.