5-YEAR STUDY OF SURGICAL RATES IN ONTARIO COUNTIES

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  • 1 January 1984
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 131  (2) , 111-115
Abstract
The surgical rates for 8 operations (hysterectomy, tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy, cholecystectomy, prostatectomy, appendectomy, mastectomy, colectomy and cesarean section) done in Ontario''s 44 counties from 1973 to 1977 were examined. There was considerable variation among the counties for all the operations studied, although the degree of intercounty variation decreased over the 5 yr. Differences in resources (hospital beds and surgeons) explained little of the variation in the rates, but this may be because people crossed county lines for certain operations. Although some counties had consistently high or low rates for individual operations during the 5 yr period, only 4 had consistently high rates for 4 or more operations, and only 5 had consistently low rates for 4 or more. The 5 counties with teaching health science centers had the highest ratios of specialists and surgeons to population, and, with the exception of 1 county in 1973, had above-average numbers of hospital beds. Despite the greater resources in these counties, their residents had consistently low rates for cholecystectomy, appendectomy, mastectomy and tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy. However, 3 of these counties had the highest rates for cesarean section. The variation in the rates is likely due to lack of agreement about indications for surgery or to variation in the use of technology rather than to differences in the incidence or prevalence of disorders.