Can a surgeon who is sitting perform abdominal operations

A loyal reader alerted me to news of a lawsuit brought by an obstetrician in South Carolina who is suing a hospital for suspending his privileges. He had performed a cesarean section while sitting on a stool because he had a foot fracture secondary to diabetes. Several witnesses said that the doctor "had been unable to properly view the surgical field, unable to properly handle the baby and unable to address hemorrhaging." The patient later developed a serious infection.

A seated surgeon can operate on the hand and arm. In fact, thats the way everyone does it. The surgeons knees easily fit under the small table holding the outstretched arm. Certain anorectal operations and gynecologic procedures done through the vagina can be done by a surgeon who is sitting, but abdominal and pelvic operations done via laparotomy cant be safely done that way.

The problem is that when a surgeon is sitting, she cant get close enough to the OR table and the patient to see way down into the abdomen and pelvis. If bleeding occurs deep in the wound, controlling it would be challenging to a surgeon who is sitting. Tying a secure knot in the pelvis while sitting might even be impossible.

With the exception of robot-assisted surgery where the surgeon sits a console remote from the operating table, a seated surgeon would have trouble doing both open and laparoscopic procedures. Even with a robotic operation, there can be problems. If the surgeon cant stand, an assistant would have to help insert the robotic ports. What if something went wrong and the abdomen had to be opened?

In a laparoscopic case, the video monitor could be seen by a sitting surgeon, but manipulating the rigid instruments would be difficult because of the angles created by the locations of the ports through which the instruments are passed.

As a retired surgeon, I sympathize with anyone who might be forced to quit operating because of illness or disability, but the safety of the patient comes first.

I hope that the suit is resolved quickly and we learn what the outcome is.

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Big data is not big enough

Today ProPublica released its “Surgeon Scorecard” touting it as the best way to pick the right surgeon.

It took me less than a minute to discover some interesting omissions from the application.

For laparoscopic cholecystectomy, the only general surgery procedure listed, the app omits approximately one-third of the hospitals in my state including two where I have practiced.

It looks like the problem is that using Medicare fee-for-service data does not yield enough surgeons performing 20 or more cases in some categories such as laparoscopic cholecystectomy for the five years included in the database.

At one of the biggest hospitals in my state, apparently only one surgeon performed 20 laparoscopic cholecystectomies on fee-for-service Medicare patients in the five years studied; 23 other surgeons were listed as having performed fewer than 20 laparoscopic cholecystectomies on patients in the target population. I don’t see how patients who want to use that hospital for their gallbladder surgery will benefit from the Surgeon Scorecard.

In general, the complication rate for laparoscopic cholecystectomy is low, but I think I understand why ProPublica chose that procedure to review. They needed to select a procedure that was done frequently enough to yield a sufficient number of cases for analysis. Unfortunately, because of the limitations of the Medicare fee-for-service data and the low complication rate of the procedure, the Surgeon Scorecard is useless for anyone looking to compare general surgeons.

Similar problems with the scorecard may be in play for prostate surgery. Again, the procedure was chosen because of its high frequency, but in quickly looking through some searches in that area, I note that a number of urologists I know also did not perform 20 cases on fee-for-service Medicare patients.

Perhaps the next iteration of the scorecard will utilize a data set that contains enough patient and surgeon records to make a meaningful comparison.

Until then, general surgeons can relax. They will not have to explain away their complications but will simply have to explain why they aren’t listed in the Surgeon Scorecard.

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