Technical and surgical factors and surgeon volume status
| Variable | Group, no. (%)* | p value | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low volume (1–8 cases) | Medium volume (9–15 cases) | High volume (> 15 cases) | Total | ||
| Surgeons | 53 (71.6) | 14 (18.9) | 7 (9.5) | 74 (100) | |
| Sample size | 172 (35.2) | 152 (31.1) | 165 (33.7) | 489 (100) | |
| Type of hospital | < 0.001† | ||||
| Community | 141 (82.0) | 107 (70.4) | 82 (49.7) | 330 (67.5) | |
| Academic | 31 (18.0) | 45 (29.6) | 83 (50.3) | 159 (32.5) | |
| Type of anesthetic | 0.27 | ||||
| Local | 5 (2.9) | 4 (2.7) | 1 (0.6) | 10 (2.1) | |
| General | 166 (97.1) | 146 (97.3) | 164 (99.4) | 476 (97.9) | |
| Preoperative diagnosis | < 0.001† | ||||
| Present | 102 (60.0) | 97 (64.2) | 133 (84.2) | 332 (69.3) | |
| Absent | 68 (40.0) | 54 (35.8) | 25 (15.8) | 147 (30.7) | |
| Cavity margins | < 0.001† | ||||
| Dissected | 57 (33.5) | 66 (44.0) | 94 (57.0) | 217 (44.7) | |
| Not dissected | 113 (66.5) | 84 (56.0) | 71 (43.0) | 268 (55.3) | |
| Specimen orientation labelling | 0.28 | ||||
| Present | 89 (52.7) | 74 (49.3) | 96 (58.2) | 259 (53.5) | |
| Absent | 80 (47.3) | 76 (50.7) | 69 (41.8) | 225 (46.5) | |
| Specimen radiograph (nonpalpable cases only) | 0.46 | ||||
| Present | 45 (88.2) | 38 (79.2) | 46 (82.1) | 129 (83.2) | |
| Absent | 6 (11.8) | 10 (20.8) | 10 (17.9) | 26 (16.8) | |
| Type of needle for localization for nonpalpable tumours | 0.08 | ||||
| Flexible | 29 (58.0) | 41 (74.5) | 32 (55.2) | 102 (62.6) | |
| Rigid | 21 (42.0) | 14 (25.5) | 26 (44.8) | 61 (37.4) | |
| Volume of tissue excised, mean (SD) | 158.9 (129) | 152.4 (141) | 188.6 (133) | 167 (135) | 0.05 |