Does the level of medical facility impact short-term results of surgical treatment of colorectal cancer

The study objective was to evaluate the impact of medical hospital volume on short-term colorectal cancer treatment results.Materials and methods. The retrospective study included 93 patients with colorectal cancer operated on by one surgeon at two medical centers in Moscow from 2018 to 2020: 32 patients of the first group were operated in tertiary medical center (N.I. Pirogov National Medical and Surgical Center) and 61 of the second group – in regional low volume hospital (Centrosoyuz Hospital). The endpoints of the study were the short-term outcomes: surgery duration, blood loss, postoperative hospital stay, intra- and postoperative complications, lymph node harvested and the quality of specimen.Results. Surgery duration as well as blood loss in two groups were similar (258 min vs 240 min, p = 0.47 and 100 ml and 100 ml, p = 0.89, accordingly). Hospital stay after surgery was significantly less in the first group (9 days vs 16 days, p <0.01). The frequency of postoperative complications of type I–II according to the Clavien–Dindo classification was higher in the first group (6/8 vs 1/8, p <0.05) but reoperations performed more in the second group due to III Clavien–Dindo complications (2/8 vs 7/8, p = 0.012). Grade 2–3 rectal cancer specimen quality was 94.7 % vs 77.8 %, p = 0.13 and harvested lymph nodes >12 was 71.9 % vs 78.7 %, p = 0.485 in first and second group, respectively.Conclusion. Hospital volume does not affect rectal cancer specimen quality, surgery duration and blood loss, if the surgical interventions are performed by one experienced surgeon but associated with the incidence of postoperative complications and the length of stay.