ArticleLangenbeck's archives of surgery2021
The volume and outcome relationship for thyroidectomy in England.
Article in Langenbeck's archives of surgery, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 13 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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.
The trial behind it
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Who cites it
13 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 28 citations in OpenAlex.
- Guideline
- The volume-outcome relationship for incisional hernia repair: analysis of an administrative dataset for England.Hernia : the journal of hernias and abdominal wall surgery · 2026Article
- [Operations for benign thyroid gland diseases in Germany-Development of case numbers and complication rates over the course of 10 years].Chirurgie (Heidelberg, Germany) · 2026Observational
- Article
- Article
- Low risk of thyroid eye disease (TED) following radioiodine (RAI) therapy in a multidisciplinary setting: a retrospective cohort study.Thyroid research · 2025Article
- Management of a huge cystic multi-nodular goiter with retro-sternal extension. Case report.International journal of surgery case reports · 2025Article
- The Relationship Between Hospital Safety-Net Burden on Outcomes for High-Volume Thyroid Cancer Surgeons.Thyroid : official journal of the American Thyroid Association · 2025Article
- Factors associated with conversion from day-case to in-patient elective inguinal hernia repair surgery across England: an observational study using administrative data.Hernia : the journal of hernias and abdominal wall surgery · 2024Observational
- Institutional case volumes of thyroidectomies in Brazil and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic: insights from a national database.Archives of endocrinology and metabolism · 2024Article
- Variant anatomy of non-recurrent laryngeal nerve: when and how should it be taught in surgical residency?Langenbeck's archives of surgery · 2023Review
- Mapping complications in thyroid surgery: statistical data are useful for medico-legal management of a recurrent safety issue.Updates in surgery · 2022Article
- Improving outcomes for patients following adrenal surgery: the importance of addressing unwarranted variation in surgical volumes.Gland surgery · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
purposeThe delivery of surgical care in England has seen a momentum towards centralisation within larger volume hospitals and surgical teams. The aim of this study was to investigate outcomes in England in relationship to hospital and surgeon annual volumes for total thyroidectomy.
methodsData were extracted from the Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES) database for England. A 6-year period (April 2012-March 2018 inclusive) for all adult admissions for thyroidectomy was used in the analysis. The primary outcome measure used was a length of hospital stay greater than 2 days or an emergency readmission within 30 days following surgery. This was used as a proxy for surgical complications. A multilevel modelling strategy was used to adjust for hierarchy and potentially confounding.
resultsData for 22,823 total thyroidectomies across 144 hospital trusts were used for analysis. For total thyroidectomy, larger volume surgeons had reduced levels of post-surgical complications; length of stay > 2 and > 4 days; emergency readmission at 30 days; and hypoparathyroidism, vocal cord palsy, stridor, and tracheostomy at 1-year post-surgery. Larger hospital volume was associated with lower levels of emergency readmission at 30 days and hypoparathyroidism at 1 year.
conclusionsThere is significant correlation between surgeon volume and clinical outcome for total thyroidectomy. The relationship was approximately linear, and a low-volume threshold could not be defined.
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Registered trials
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.