TUESDAY, Nov. 5 (HealthDay News) -- For patients undergoing elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy, there is no significant difference in complication rates for surgeons who operate or do not operate the night before, according to a study published in the Nov. 6 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Christopher Vinden, M.D., from Western University in London, Canada, and colleagues conducted a population-based, matched, retrospective cohort study using information from administrative health care databases to examine whether surgeons operating the night before have more complications of elective surgery performed the next day. Participants included 2,078 patients who underwent elective laparoscopic cholecystectomies performed by surgeons who operated the night before, matched with 8,312 elective laparoscopic cholecystectomy recipients whose procedures were performed by the same surgeon when they had not operated the night before.
The researchers observed no significant correlation in conversion rates to open operations for surgeons who had or had not operated the night before (2.2 versus 1.9 percent; adjusted odds ratio, 1.18; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.85 to 1.64). There was also no significant correlation between operating the night before and the risk of iatrogenic injuries (0.7 versus 0.9 percent) or death (≤0.2 versus 0.1 percent).
"These findings do not support safety concerns related to surgeons operating under these conditions," the authors write.
One author disclosed financial ties to Baxter Health Care.
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