Frequency of major adverse cardiac events within one month of coronary angioplasty: a useful measure of operator performance

AbstractOBJECTIVESTo test one-month outcomes in a single center for their statistical power to corroborate conclusions derived from large multicenter databases.BACKGROUNDOnly with large, multicenter databases has it been possible to demonstrate more frequent occurrences of complications in patients treated by “low-volume operators.” Critics feel that such analyses mask excellent performance by many “low-volume operators.”METHODSIn a high-volume cardiac catheterization laboratory in a large, nonuniversity teaching hospital, baseline clinical and angiographic characteristics were collected for a consecutive series of 1,029 patients treated by 37 percutaneous transluminal coronary intervention (PTCI) operators over a four-month period. One-month follow-up was obtained in 967 (94%) patients who form the basis for this analysis.RESULTSOnly the group of operators performing