title: [Relationship between surgical volumes and 30-day mortality in patients with oesophagus and stomach cancer: a review of the literature and metanalysis].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to analyse the relationship between annual hospital volumes of surgery for oesophageal and gastric cancer and 30-day mortality.
  
  
  METHODS
  a systematic review of the literature has been carried out on these topics by searching Medline for the years 1998-2012 and using two ad hoc search strings. For oesophageal cancer, the most recent and best quality systematic review was updated by including further studies, and then a metanalysis was carried out. For gastric cancer, two different metanalyses on low and high volumes were performed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  regarding oesophageal carcinoma, the study confirmed the association between 30-day mortality and the number of annual hospital interventions for this pathology. As for stomach cancer, the two metanalyses confirmed the role of high-volume surgery in reducing the outcome considered.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  this study confirms the association between short-term outcomes and the number of annual hospital interventions for oesophageal and gastric cancer. The results obtained may be important for health care policy makers and administrators/managers in order to improve quality of care for patients with oesophageal or stomach cancer.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di scienze biomediche e neuromotorie, Alma Mater Studiorum, Università di Bologna. dedegori27@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Davide
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gori
authors.forename: Dario
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Tedesco
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Goggi
authors.forename: Raffaele
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lombardi
authors.forename: Maria Pia
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Fantini
mesh_terms: D004938:Esophageal Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D006761:Hospitals / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000401:mortality*; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000601:surgery*; D013997:Time Factors