Benefits Examined Due To Centralized Hospitalization For Lung Cancer Surgery

Regional basis organization of lung cancer surgery is quite practical and effective for patients, who generally have to admit in hospitals for a short time owing to health complications, according to a study demonstrated publically at the 55th Annual Meeting of The Society of Thoracic Surgeons held this week only.

The medical data of the patients were collected, who have gone through major lung cancer surgeries at the hospitals associated with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California (KPNC) network. The data was then examined by Sora Ely (MD of the East Bay Surgery Program at the University of California San Francisco), together with Dr. Velotta and other colleagues. The study covered the analysis of patients belonging to different regions comprising Oakland, Central Valley, and San Francisco.

In the year 2014, KPNC categorized the thoracic surgery care on a regional basis and shifted the cases from sixteen hospitals to five designated centers. The scientists observed some changes occurred due to regionalization by dividing the patients in a group of two: comprising 782 patients who experienced lung cancer surgery within the tenure of 2011 and 2013, and 845 patients have gone through the treatment within the period of two years started from 2015.

After thoroughly examining the data, it is concluded that the patients, who were treated in post-regionalization years spent very less or no time in the intensive care unit (ICU), with an average of 1.7 Days of stay. While, in the pre-regionalization era, the patients spent an average of 3.3 days in ICU

The scientists also discovered that regionalization resulted in greater utilization of advanced techniques including minimally invasive video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery (VATS), 57% in case of pre-regionalization and. 86% in the case of post-regionalization. Also, the normal operating time through VATS has been reduced by more than half an hour after regionalization.