The relation of annual surgeon case volume to clinical outcomes and resource utilization in abdominal hysterectomy

OBJECTIVE: To study the relationship of annual sur-geon case volume to surgical outcome following hyster-ectomy. STUDY DESIGN: We per-formed a retrospective cohort study of women who under-went hysterectomy between January 1995 and December 2005 and evaluated the rela-tionship of surgeon volume to complications and re-source utilization. RESULTS: A total of 214 physicians contributed a total of 8,747 patients to the study. Of these patients, 7,166 women underwent ab-dominal hysterectomy. Overall, rates of complications in the study population were low. However, compared with patients of low annual surgeon case volume (i.e., who performed <10 hysterectomies per year), high annual surgeon case volume (i.e., who performed > 10 hysterec-tomies per year) had fewer intraoperative complications, fewer postoperative complications and shorter procedure times than surgeons with low annual volume for abdom-inal hysterectomy. CONCLUSION: Among women undergoing abdominal hysterectomy, physicians who operate on more patients annually have fewer complications and faster procedure times, compared with lower volume surgeons. Both groups have low complication rates, however, confirming the safety of the procedure even in the hands of low-volume surgeons. (J Reprod Med 2009;54:193-202).