The Impact of Intraoperative Anesthesiology Provider Handovers on Postoperative Complications After Hepatopancreatobiliary (HPB) Surgery

Background: The objective of this study is to assess the possible association between intraoperative anesthesia team handovers and increased 90-day major complications following HPB surgery.

Methods: This is a single-center retrospective cohort study of patients who underwent HPB surgery. Anesthesiologist handover (AH) occurred when a complete transfer of care to a receiving anesthesiologist. total anesthesia team handovers (TH) occurred when both anesthesiologist and supervised provider transferred care. The primary outcome was 90-day major complications, defined as an ACCORDION score of ≥ 3.

Results: Ninety-day major complications occurred in 35 (21.6%) of TH and 96 (21.9%) of AH patients. With adjustment of other covariates, no significant association was found between AH (OR, 1.358, 95% CI, 0.935-1.973, p = 0.1079) or TH (OR, 1.157, 95% CI, 0.706-1.894, p = 0.5633) and 90-day major complications.

Conclusions: In a high-volume HPB center, anesthesia team handovers were not associated with an increased risk of patients having a major complication within 90 days after HPB surgery.