Impact of hospital type and surgical volume on outcomes of biliary cancer resection.

Abstract

e16168 Background: The mainstay of treatment for patients with early-stage biliary cancer (gallbladder or cholangiocarcinoma) is surgical resection. Herein, we evaluated the predictors for biliary cancer resection outcome and association with hospital volume and teaching status. Methods: A national representative cohort of 18485 biliary cancer patients was included for the years 2016 – 2018 from the national inpatient sample database. The study population included patients ≥ 18 years diagnosed with biliary cancer who underwent elective surgical resection (ICD 10). Hospitals were categorized based on teaching status (yes, if ACGME approved residency program, member of the council of teaching hospitals, or with residents to beds ratio of .25 or higher, versus non-teaching); and hospital volume (high if ≥ 20 biliary cancer surgeries performed per year, otherwise low). The primary outcome was biliary resection and the secondary outcomes included post-operative complications, in-hospital mortality, length of stay (< or ≥ 7 days), and health care cost (< or ≥ median) based on hospital teaching status and biliary cancer surgical volume. Association with outcomes was assessed using multivariable logistic regression models adjusted for age, sex, race, household income, service payer, Elixhauser co-morbidity score, hospital volume, teaching status, bed size, location, and region. Results: Out of 18,485 patients hospitalized with biliary cancer, 7,030 patients underwent elective biliary cancer resection during the study period. Patients undergoing resection were likely to have higher than national household median income with Medicare as primary insurance payor. In multivariate adjusted logistic regression models, high volume centers showed significantly lower length of stay (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 0.73; 95% CI 0.54 - 0.97; p=0.03), and lower in-hospital mortality (aOR 0.28; 95% CI 0.15 - 0.80; p=0.01), but no significant difference in post-operative complications or healthcare cost compared to low volume centers. Surgeries performed in a teaching hospital were associated with decreased risk of post-operative complications (aOR 0.74; 95% CI 0.55 - 1.0; p=0.05), significant decrease in in-hospital mortality (aOR 0.44; 95% CI 0.27 - 0.69; p=0.001), but higher inflation-adjusted healthcare cost (aOR 1.77; 95% CI 1.37-2.26; p<0.001) with no difference in length of stay. Conclusions: Patients who underwent elective biliary cancer surgery at a teaching or high-volume hospital had a significant decrease in their risk of in-hospital mortality. Additionally, surgeries at teaching hospitals were associated with a significantly lower post-operative complication rate compared to similar procedures at a non-teaching hospital, although teaching hospitals did have a significantly higher healthcare cost when adjusted for length of stay.