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Utilisation of an operative difficulty grading scale for laparoscopic cholecystectomy

Abstract:

Background
A reliable system for grading operative difficulty of laparoscopic cholecystectomy would standardise description of findings and reporting of outcomes. The aim of this study was to validate a difficulty grading system (Nassar scale), testing its applicability and consistency in two large prospective datasets.


Methods
Patient and disease-related variables and 30-day outcomes were identified in two prospective cholecystectomy databases: the multi-centre prospective cohort of 8820 patients from the recent CholeS Study and the single-surgeon series containing 4089 patients. Operative data and patient outcomes were correlated with Nassar operative difficultly scale, using Kendall’s tau for dichotomous variables, or Jonckheere–Terpstra tests for continuous variables. A ROC curve analysis was performed, to quantify the predictive accuracy of the scale for each outcome, with continuous outcomes dichotomised, prior to analysis.


Results
A higher operative difficulty grade was consistently associated with worse outcomes for the patients in both the reference and CholeS cohorts. The median length of stay increased from 0 to 4 days, and the 30-day complication rate from 7.6 to 24.4% as the difficulty grade increased from 1 to 4/5 (both p < 0.001). In the CholeS cohort, a higher difficulty grade was found to be most strongly associated with conversion to open and 30-day mortality (AUROC = 0.903, 0.822, respectively). On multivariable analysis, the Nassar operative difficultly scale was found to be a significant independent predictor of operative duration, conversion to open surgery, 30-day complications and 30-day reintervention (all p < 0.001).


Conclusion
We have shown that an operative difficulty scale can standardise the description of operative findings by multiple grades of surgeons to facilitate audit, training assessment and research. It provides a tool for reporting operative findings, disease severity and technical difficulty and can be utilised in future research to reliably compare outcomes according to case mix and intra-operative difficulty.


Publication status:
Published
Peer review status:
Peer reviewed

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Publisher copy:
10.1007/s00464-018-6281-2

Authors


More by this author
Role:
Author
ORCID:
0000-0003-3487-0090

Contributors

Institution:
University of Oxford
Division:
Medical Sciences Division
Department:
NDM
Sub department:
Oxford Ludwig Institute
Department:
Unknown
Role:
Contributor
ORCID:
0000-0001-7878-7024


Publisher:
Springer Verlag
Host title:
Surgical Endoscopy
Journal:
Surgical Endoscopy More from this journal
Volume:
33
Issue:
1
Pages:
110-121
Publication date:
2018-06-28
Acceptance date:
2018-06-18
Event location:
Germany
DOI:
EISSN:
1432-2218
ISSN:
0930-2794
Pmid:
29956029


Keywords:
Pubs id:
pubs:969053
UUID:
uuid:658d5f45-e85f-4e24-8d0c-d25226a2e184
Local pid:
pubs:969053
Source identifiers:
969053
Deposit date:
2019-02-13

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