Patients undergoing cancer and cardiac surgeries have a higher chance of survival if their surgeon performs the operations frequently, says a new study in the New England Journal of Medicine. According to the US based study, experience is essential for major surgeries. Surgeons who perform surgeries frequently provide a better survival rate of patients.

According to Dr P Jagannath, a well-known surgical oncologist at the Asian Institute of Oncology, SL Raheja Hospital, “the study proves that patients can substantially improve their chances of survival by selecting surgeons who are highly experienced.” “Choosing the surgeon is more important than choosing the hospital” he added.

The study conducted in US compared the mortality rates of surgery patients who underwent heart operations or operations to treat cancer. Analysis of nearly 5 lakh patients undergoing either a coronary bypass or cancer resections for lung, oesophagus, urinary bladder and pancreas established that more the number of procedures a surgeon performs the better his results.

“The more number of procedures done by a doctor, the more experience he gets and less likely to get into complications. So much so in the US any hospital doing less than 150 surgeries are normally not allowed to do cardiac surgeries. Surgeons have to do at least 150 surgeries to maintain the adequate skill level. A surgeon performing say more than 500 surgeries is more likely to have less complications and better results than someone doing 200 surgeries a year,” said Dr Ramakanta Panda, CEO, Asian Heart Institute.

The study is important because it may help Indian government develop policies that may save the lives of surgical patients, said Dr Panda. In developing policies that could help avert needless deaths, hospital administrators need to take into account the impact of experience of a surgeon, he added.