High Volume Surgery

Research has shown that the risk of major complications and mortality are significantly reduced if the Whipple procedure or other pancreatic surgery is performed at an institution that performs a high volume of these procedures.  Below are some links that speak to the importance of having an experienced surgeon and hospital when undergoing pancreatic surgery.

The New England Journal of Medicine published research showing that as the volume of surgical procedures increases, surgical outcomes are improved.  This article analyzes various types of surgery including pancreas removal due to cancer.

Better gastric and pancreatic cancer survival rates at high-quality, high-volume cancer centers may be partly because of improved staging through more extensive searches during surgery for metastatic nodes.

Hospital costs for complex cancer surgeries are lower when the procedures are done by surgeons who perform a larger number of such operations.