Title: Assessment of whether in-hospital mortality for lobectomy is a useful standard for the quality of lung cancer surgery: retrospective study
Abstract: <b>Objectives</b> To calculate in-hospital mortality after lobectomy for primary lung cancer in the United Kingdom; to explore the validity of using such data to assess the quality of UK thoracic surgeons; and to investigate the relation between in-hospital mortality and the number of procedures performed by surgeons. <b>Design</b> Retrospective study. <b>Setting</b> 36 departments dealing with thoracic surgery in UK hospitals. <b>Participants</b> 4028 patients who had undergone lobectomy for primary lung cancer by one of 102 surgeons. <b>Main outcome measures</b> In-hospital mortality in relation to individual surgeons, among all patients, and among each of five groups of patients defined by the number of operations performed by the surgeon. <b>Results</b> 103 patients (2.6%, 95% confidence interval 2.1% to 3.1%) died after surgery during the same hospital admission. No significant difference was found for in-hospital mortality between the five groups. <b>Conclusions</b> The number of procedures performed by a thoracic surgeon is not related to in-hospital mortality. Reporting data on in-hospital mortality after lobectomy for primary lung cancer is a poor tool for measuring a surgeon9s performance.