Canadian review finds patients having procedures at end of work week face no greater mortality risk
TUESDAY, Oct. 18, 2016 (HealthDay News) — Patients having elective surgery on Fridays are no more likely to die than patients who undergo procedures any other weekday, according to research published online Oct. 17 in CMAJ, the journal of the Canadian Medical Association.
Researchers examined 403,899 elective, daytime surgical procedures performed by 1,691 different surgeons at Ontario hospitals over a 10-year period — from 2002 to 2012. The study examined 12 surgeries, all commonly performed on an elective basis and typically requiring at least a two-day hospital stay. These included esophagectomy or gastrectomy; pancreaticoduodenectomy; nephrectomy; cystectomy; partial liver resection; lobectomy or pneumonectomy; colorectal resection; total hip or knee replacement; coronary artery bypass graft surgery or aortic valve replacement; aortic aneurysm repair; lower limb revascularization; and carotid endarterectomy.
Surgeon experience was highest on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, with an average of 19 years in practice, the researchers found. It was lowest on Mondays and Fridays, averaging 16 years. Median annual procedure volume also varied by day of week. It was highest for surgeons who operated on Tuesdays and lowest on Fridays. The risk of patients being admitted to the intensive care unit was slightly higher on a Friday than a Monday. But risk of death within 30 days of surgery was no greater for surgery on a Friday than other weekdays.
“Although surgeon experience differed across days of the week, the risk of 30-day mortality after elective surgery was similar regardless of which day of the week the procedure took place,” the authors write.
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