Outcome analysis of pancreaticoduodenectomy at a community hospital

There is an ongoing debate about the proposed regionalization of pancreaticoduodenectomies. The purpose of our study is to demonstrate that good outcomes can be achieved in a well-managed low-volume community hospital. We retrospectively analyzed pathologic findings, morbidity, mortality, and one-year survival in 32 patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy at Providence Hospital over a 10-year period and compared these results with data collected at Johns Hopkins, and the Mayo Clinic. The patients had a mean age of 68.5 +/- 2.96 years; 56.3 per cent were female and 71.9 per cent were white. Overall in our series 90.6 per cent of specimens were found to be malignant, which is statistically higher than the 68 per cent at Johns Hopkins (P = 0.013) and not significantly different from Mayo Clinic (76%). The 30-day mortality rate at Providence Hospital was 3.1 per cent, which is not statistically different from Johns Hopkins (1.3%) and Mayo Clinic (3.6%). One-year survival rate at Providence Hospital was 59.4 per cent, which is significantly different from 79 per cent at Johns Hopkins (P = 0.016). The one-year survival rate at Providence Hospital is higher than an approximately 50 per cent average reported nationally. The postoperative complication rate was 62.5 per cent; the most common complication was delayed early gastric emptying (28.1%). A statistical difference in morbidity exists between Providence Hospital and Johns Hopkins (P = 0.027) but not between Providence Hospital and Mayo Clinic (46%). The higher rate of malignant disease treated in the population at Providence Hospital may contribute to a higher complication rate and lower one-year survival rate than the reported rates at Johns Hopkins because of the poorer health of cancer patients. However, statistical analysis of mortality rates for pancreaticoduodenectomy at Providence Hospital show no difference from mortality rates at Johns Hopkins and Mayo Clinic. Therefore in low-volume community hospitals pancreaticoduodenectomy can be performed safely as evidenced by a comparable low mortality rate and a high one-year survival rate.