Factors Influencing Death Rates after Oesophageal or Gastric Surgery

Several earlier studies have indicated variations in number of deaths reported after gastric or oesophageal cancer surgery among European countries. The study findings revealed that greater expertise were experienced in hospitals handling higher number of the cases hence recorded minimal death cases after the surgery. Research by European Cancer Congress, revealed that death after the surgery might not be dependent only on the volumes of patients handled in each hospital. About 10,000 Surgical operations examined between 2004 and 2009 in England, Sweden, Netherlands and Denmark indicated that high volume of handling gastric and oesophageal cancer reduced the chances of death occurrence after the surgery. However, this was not clear since countries such as Sweden recorded low death rates and low volumes of handling the cancer cases. “Hospital volume is not the only explanation for differences in mortality’, says Dr. Dikken in reference to this. The work in progress by European Upper GI Cancer Audit (EURECCA) is to find other factors besides the high volumes that may cause variation in number of deaths after surgery.