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The “Weekday Effect”—Does It Impact Esophageal Cancer Surgery Outcomes?

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A Correction to this article was published on 08 September 2022

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Abstract

Background

Increased 30-day mortality rates have been reported in patients undergoing elective surgery later compared with earlier in the week. However, these reports have been conflicting for esophageal surgery. We conducted a study to assess the differences in outcomes of patients undergoing surgery for esophageal cancer earlier in the week (Tuesday) versus later (Friday).

Methods

This retrospective analysis of a prospectively maintained database included patients with esophageal cancer who underwent esophageal resection in a tertiary cancer center between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2017. We compared patients operated on Tuesdays versus Fridays. The primary outcome was a composite of major morbidity (defined as Clavien-Dindo grade 3 or more) and/or mortality. Secondary outcomes included duration of post-operative ventilation, and length of ICU and hospital stay.

Results

Among 1300 patients included, 733 were operated on a Tuesday and 567 on a Friday. Patient and surgery characteristics were similar in the two groups. The primary outcome (composite of major morbidity and mortality) was 23.6% in the Tuesday group versus 26.3% in the Friday group. Mortality was similar in the two groups (6.0%). Multivariable logistic regression analysis showed that the day of surgery was not a predictor of major morbidity or mortality.

Conclusions

In patients undergoing esophagectomy at tertiary care high volume cancer center, there was no difference in major morbidity and mortality whether the surgery was performed early in the week (Tuesday) or closer to the weekend (Friday).

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Thoracic Surgery, Department of Surgical Oncology, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, India

    Sabita Jiwnani & C. S. Pramesh

  2. Department of Anaesthesiology, Critical Care and Pain, Tata Memorial Centre, Homi Bhabha National Institute, Mumbai, India

    Priya Ranganathan

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  1. Sabita Jiwnani
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Contributions

SJ and PR contributed to the study design and IEC submission. SJ, PR, and CSP contributed to the data collection. PR did the statistical analysis. SJ and PR prepared the initial manuscript. CSP provided administrative support and refined the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Sabita Jiwnani.

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In the published article “The “Weekday Effect”—Does It Impact Esophageal Cancer Surgery Outcomes?” there is a correction that has been missed out in one of the tables. The number of transthoracic esophagectomy done on Friday is missing in table 1. In the type of surgery section of the table, The first row is transthoracic esophagectomy. The number of procedures performed on Friday is 463 (81%).

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Jiwnani, S., Pramesh, C.S. & Ranganathan, P. The “Weekday Effect”—Does It Impact Esophageal Cancer Surgery Outcomes?. J Gastrointest Canc 54, 970–977 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12029-022-00855-7

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