BackgroundStroke is among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Without reliable prediction models and outcome measurements, comparison of care systems is impossible. We analyzed prospectively collected data from 4 countries to explore the importance of stroke severity in outcome prediction.Methods and ResultsFor 2 months, all acute ischemic stroke patients from the hospitals participating in the Global Comparators Stroke GOAL (Global Outcomes Accelerated Learning) collaboration received a National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) score on admission and a modified Rankin Scale score at 30 and 90 days. These data were added to the administrative data set, and risk prediction models including age, sex, comorbidity index, and NIHSS were derived for in‐hospital death within 7 days, all in‐hospital death, and death and good outcome at 30 and 90 days. The relative importance of each variable was assessed using the proportion of explained variation. Of 1034 admissions for acute ischemic stroke, 614 had a full set of NIHSS and both modified Rankin Scale values recorded; of these, 507 patients could be linked to administrative data. The marginal proportion of explained variation was 0.7% to 4.0% for comorbidity index, and 11.3 to 25.0 for NIHSS score. The percentage explained by the model varied by outcome (16.6–29.1%) and was highest for good outcome at 30 and 90 days. There was high agreement between 30‐ and 90‐day modified Rankin Scale scores (weighted κ=0.82).ConclusionsIn this prospective pilot study, the baseline NIHSS score was essential for prediction of acute ischemic stroke outcomes, followed by age; whereas traditional comorbidity index contributed little to the overall model. Future studies of stroke outcomes between different care systems will benefit from including a baseline NIHSS score.

Intercountry differences in outcomes may result from differences in the quality of care or in practice patterns driven by socio-economic factors. Carefully managed administrative data can be an effective resource for initiating dialog between hospitals within and across countries. Inclusion of important outcomes beyond hospital discharge would increase the value of these analyses.

Objectives: Thyroid conditions are common and their incidence is increasing. Surgery is the mainstay treatment for many thyroid conditions, and understanding its utilisation trends and morbidity are central to improving patient care. Accepted ArticleThis article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Results: Mean age at surgery was 49±30 and a female predominance (82%) was observed.Most patients underwent hemithyroidectomy (51%) or total thyroidectomy (32%). Patients underwent surgery for benign (52.5%), benign inflammatory (21%), and malignant (17%) thyroid diseases. Thyroid surgery grew by 2.9% a year and increased in specialization.Increased surgeon volume significantly reduced lengths of stay: the proportion of length of stay outliers fell from 11.8% for patients of occasional thyroidectomists (<5 per year) to 2.8% for patients of high-volume surgeons (>50 thyroidectomies a year). Post-discharge vocal palsy and hypocalcaemia occurred in 1.87% and 1.58% of cases respectively. High-volume surgeons had a reduced incidence of vocal palsy and volumes >30 were consistently protective.Conclusions: Thyroid surgery is increasingly specialised. High-volume surgeons achieve lower complications rates, including lower vocal palsy rates, and length of stay.

Mortality following head and neck cancer surgery shows significant national variation and is associated with fixed risk factors like age and co-morbidities, but also with modifiable risk factors like performing major surgery during an emergency admission, tracheostomy, reconstructive surgery and medical complications. We propose that the quality of tracheostomy care, reconstructive surgery, emergency major surgery rate, and occurrence and treatment of major medical complications should be closely examined and formally benchmarked as part of loco-regional and national quality improvement audits.

There is a significant association between post-thyroidectomy vocal palsy and long-term risks of hospital readmission, dysphagia, hospitalisation for lower respiratory tract infection, and gastrostomy/tracheostomy tube placement. This adds weight to the need, from a thyroid surgical perspective, to undertake universal post-thyroidectomy laryngeal surveillance as a minimum standard of care, with a focus on post-operative dysphagia and aspiration, and from a medical/respiratory perspective, to initiate investigations to identify occult vocal palsy in patients who present with pneumonia, who have a history of thyroid surgery.