Outcome-volume relationships and transhiatal esophagectomy: minimizing failure to rescue

Table 1 Patient demographics and pre-operative characteristics

Variable	All cases	Group 1	Group 2	Group 3	Group 4	P-value
Male: Female	5:1	6:1	5:1	4:1	9:1	0.41
Median age at operation, years (range)	62 (40-82)	62 (46-82)	62 (40-77)	62 (40-80)	64 (46-80)	0.54
Smoking history (%)	74	82	78	72	62	0.12
Body Mass Index (kg/m²)	27.6	27.9	26.9	28.4	27.3	0.63
Mean pre-operative albumin (g/dL)	3.7	3.5	3.7	3.7	3.7	0.054
1 or more comorbidities (%)^†	62	60	60	56	70	0.52
Histology (%)^‡						0.06
Adenocarcinoma	60	82	80	74	74
Squamous cell carcinoma	16	10	10	14	13
High grade dysplasia / CIS	18	6	4	8	9
Other	2	2	2	0	2
Pre-Operative Stage (%)^§						0.40
0	0	2	0	0	0
I	18	2	26	20	24
II	11	4	6	12	22
III	27	10	34	34	28
IV	3	0	2	4	6
Unknown	41	82	32	30	20
Post-Operative Stage (%)						0.51
0	26	20	22	22	23
I	22	40	16	26	26
II	24	18	32	22	24
III	28	20	22	22	23
IV	0	0	2	0	1
Neoadjuvant therapy (%)	60	40	56	68	74	0.003*

CIS – carcinoma in situ.
Group 1 = cases 1 – 50.
Group 2 = cases 51 – 100.
Group 3 = cases 101 – 150.
Group 4 = cases 151-200.
^†Patients who met the following criteria were considered to have a comorbid condition: a diagnosis of diabetes mellitus, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, peripheral vascular disease or stroke; a diagnosis of hypertension or current treatment with an anti-hypertensive medication; a diagnosis of coronary artery disease or history of coronary artery stenting or coronary artery bypass surgery; and a history of previous deep vein thrombosis or pulmonary embolism.
^‡For histology, other includes: gastrointestinal stromal tumor, melanoma, and poorly differentiated carcinoma with neuroendocrine features.
^§All esophagectomy patients who were considered stage IV preoperatively had celiac lymph node disease on endoscopic ultrasound (n = 6). Patients were reported to have unknown preoperative staging if the endoscopic ultrasound report was missing from their hospital chart.
*p < 0.05

ISSN: 1750-1164