Early Readmissions after Esophagectomy for Esophageal Adenocarcinoma: Does Facility Case-Volume Matter?

Table 1

Comparison of esophagectomy performed at high- and low-volume centers for esophageal cancer in patients 18 years of age and older who survived their initial hospital stay. High-volume centers were defined as performing 10 or more cases per year, while low-volume centers performed 9 or less cases annually. IQR interquartile range.

Variable	High‐volume center	Low‐volume center	value
Esophagectomy (annual case volume)	898	1119
Cases without readmission	746 (83.1%)	924 (82.6%)	0.77
Cases with 30-day readmission	152 (16.9%)	195 (17.4%)	0.77
Median patient age in years (IQR)	65 (13)	64 (13)	0.08
Median time to readmission (IQR)	8 (10)	9 (13)	0.02
Median length of stay in days (IQR)	9 (5)	11 (8)	<0.001
Median costs (IQR)	$40,000 ($23,000)	$40,000 ($31,000)	0.54
Median comorbidity score (IQR)	2 (2)	2 (3)	0.41
Incidence of postoperative complications	43.80%	58.30%	<0.001