Surgeon experience is important in angioplasty

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

The risk of complications among patients having angioplasty is much less if the surgeon has carried out many such procedures.
In angioplasty, a balloon-tipped catheter is inserted into a blocked artery and a wire device called a stent is then added to keep the walls of the vessel apart. A team at the University of Michigan now shows that the experience of the surgeon doing the angioplasty is a factor in its outcome. They examined data from 18,504 patients having angioplasty in 14 Michigan hospitals carried out by 165 physicians.

They found that those patients having their angioplasty carried out by a surgeon who did less than 90 procedures a year had a higher risk of complications. Their risk was 63 per cent higher than for patients whose surgeons had done more than 90 procedures.

However, this was not the full story. For there was at least no difference in the risk of death before leaving hospital between high and low volume surgeons. And a few doctors who performed only a handful of angioplasties each year still had very good patient outcomes. The differences between high and low volume surgeon outcomes were particularly marked for procedures done, as an emergency, on the weekend. The bottom line is that patients might consider asking their surgeon about their experience when they need an angioplasty. Those who live in some states - such as New Jersey, California and New York - can even look up this data in public records.

Source
University of Michigan Health System 15th August 2005