Colon Surgery Death More Likely at Teaching Hospitals: Study
According to new research, patients may face a higher risk of death from colon surgery if their operation is performed at a teaching hospital.
The results of the new study are published in this month’s issue of the Archives of Surgery medical journal, and indicate that those who have colon surgery in a teaching hospital are hospitalized longer and face a slightly increased mortality rate. Teaching hospitals were often found to have performed the colon surgery procedures less often.
In the study, U.S. researchers from Johns Hopkins in Baltimore and the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, looked at more than 115,000 patients in 1,045 hospitals who had colon surgery from 2001 through 2005. They found that the mortality rate for colon surgery patients was 3.9% at teaching hospitals, compared to 3.7% at non-teaching hospitals. In addition, those who had the surgeries performed at teaching hospitals tended to remain hospitalized a half a day longer, on average, when the operations were done at teaching hospitals. The average length of stay, overall, was about 10 days.
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Learn MoreResearchers say that, though small, the difference is important. They concluded that how the hospitals handle benign disease among the patients seems to be a “tipping point” that non-teaching hospitals seem to handle slightly better. Researchers said that the findings emphasize that diagnosis of a patient’s conditions before surgery should be considered as important as the procedure itself, particularly when determining where that surgery should be performed.
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1 Comments
CarolynMay 7, 2010 at 5:32 pm
On Oct.10 of '08 Carolyn, 51, a former athlete, had a total colectomy by a Stanford surgeon. She had three fluid collections, but only had two drains put in with IV antibiotics. The third fluid collection was not drained, and she was never given IV antibiotics. She very soon developed sharp pain in that area that lasted well over a year. It became blame the victim time as the surgeon said it w[Show More]On Oct.10 of '08 Carolyn, 51, a former athlete, had a total colectomy by a Stanford surgeon. She had three fluid collections, but only had two drains put in with IV antibiotics. The third fluid collection was not drained, and she was never given IV antibiotics. She very soon developed sharp pain in that area that lasted well over a year. It became blame the victim time as the surgeon said it was in her head, phantom pain, nerve pain, psychological pain. Nerve pain doctors wasted two weeks treating her for nerve pain without an iota of success. She was treated with increasing dosages of pain pills (up to 150mg Oxycontin) , given multiple CAT scans, showed symptoms of infection but nothing was done in spite of extraordinarily severe pain, severe sweats and chills, nausea, vomiting, weakness, and eventually severe swelling of what seemed to be her lymph system (a possible sign that the kidneys and other organs were breaking down, that she was in the process of dying from infection). In desperation she went to alternative healers (one transmedium healer who works with Stanford doctors with difficult cases and two medical intuitives, one of whom works with difficult cases at John Hopkins). All three immediately saw infections that the catscans missed. All saw the surgeon as very possibly negligent. Their concensus was that she was dying and that intervention was critical. Other doctors seemed to not want to help Carolyn due to unwillingness to do surgery without "sufficient evidence of a problem" or due to notes in her file or deference to her surgeon. Colon surgeons are a very small community. It seems that clinical diagnosis no longer counts. In fact, at one point a pick line was left in her for two weeks while the surgeon may have interferred against the use of intravenous antibiotics authorized by another Stanford doctor. Carolyn would probably have died in March of '10 were it not for the intervention of the transmedium healer who may later be on the Oprah show. Her treatments had an immediate effect, but the swelling is proving difficult to cure. If there is any class action suit against this surgeon (name provied below), who according to one of the medical intuitives, has lost as many as 10 patients, we would like to be contacted and be a part of the lawsuit. Carolyn's suffering has been enormous. No human being should have to go through what she went through. She is currently still suffering from a great deal of fluid collection throughout her body. Her husband's business has almost ceased as he has had to be the nurse and caregiver for the eleven year old who has had a hard time.