TY - JOUR
T1 - Adoption of New Technology and Healthcare Quality
T2 - Surgical Margins After Robotic Prostatectomy
AU - Weizer, Alon Z.
AU - Ye, Zaojun
AU - Hollingsworth, John M.
AU - Dunn, Rodney L.
AU - Shah, Rajal B.
AU - Wolf, J. Stuart
AU - Wei, John T.
AU - Montie, James E.
AU - Hollenbeck, Brent K.
PY - 2007/7/1
Y1 - 2007/7/1
N2 - Objectives: To study the evolution of surgical margins in robotic prostatectomy (DVP), to ascertain the surgical volume necessary to provide quality cancer care. Methods: Clinicopathologic data on consecutive DVP patients were abstracted from our institutional database. The primary outcome evaluated was the presence of any positive surgical margin. Surgeon DVP volume was the unit of exposure. A logistic model was fit to measure the association of volume and margin status, adjusting for patient differences. Results: Between November 2001 and August 2005, 193 consecutive patients underwent DVP. Disease and patient characteristics were similar across the levels of surgeon volume. Overall, surgical margins did not dramatically decline over time (first 15 cases, 26% versus cases 81 and beyond, 22%; P = 0.82). However, extensive margins were largely eliminated (first 15 cases, 12% versus cases 81 and beyond, 2%; P = 0.05). After adjusting for preoperative patient differences, the odds of any positive margin among those treated by a surgeon in the highest-volume group was 0.99 (95% confidence interval 0.36 to 2.72) compared with those treated during a surgeon's first 15 cases. Conclusions: Although extensive surgical margins decline with increasing volume, overall positive margin rates after DVP respond slowly. It seems that cumulative surgeon volume beyond that which can be obtained in the typical urology practice may be needed to obtain ideal margin rates with this new technology.
AB - Objectives: To study the evolution of surgical margins in robotic prostatectomy (DVP), to ascertain the surgical volume necessary to provide quality cancer care. Methods: Clinicopathologic data on consecutive DVP patients were abstracted from our institutional database. The primary outcome evaluated was the presence of any positive surgical margin. Surgeon DVP volume was the unit of exposure. A logistic model was fit to measure the association of volume and margin status, adjusting for patient differences. Results: Between November 2001 and August 2005, 193 consecutive patients underwent DVP. Disease and patient characteristics were similar across the levels of surgeon volume. Overall, surgical margins did not dramatically decline over time (first 15 cases, 26% versus cases 81 and beyond, 22%; P = 0.82). However, extensive margins were largely eliminated (first 15 cases, 12% versus cases 81 and beyond, 2%; P = 0.05). After adjusting for preoperative patient differences, the odds of any positive margin among those treated by a surgeon in the highest-volume group was 0.99 (95% confidence interval 0.36 to 2.72) compared with those treated during a surgeon's first 15 cases. Conclusions: Although extensive surgical margins decline with increasing volume, overall positive margin rates after DVP respond slowly. It seems that cumulative surgeon volume beyond that which can be obtained in the typical urology practice may be needed to obtain ideal margin rates with this new technology.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34447557858&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=34447557858&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.urology.2007.03.004
DO - 10.1016/j.urology.2007.03.004
M3 - Article
C2 - 17656216
AN - SCOPUS:34447557858
SN - 0090-4295
VL - 70
SP - 96
EP - 100
JO - Urology
JF - Urology
IS - 1
ER -