Annals of surgery
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The aim of this study was to determine whether hospital volume was associated with mortality in breast cancer, and what thresholds of case volume impacted survival. ⋯ Treatment at high volume centers is associated with improved survival for breast cancer patients regardless of stage. High case volume could serve as a proxy for the institutional infrastructure required to deliver complex multidisciplinary breast cancer treatment.
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To define clinical features of surgical patients in whom postoperative blood cultures are likely to identify pathogens. ⋯ Ordering blood cultures based on fever or another single predictor inconsistently identifies pathogens. Our dataset, the largest available, identify clinical predictors in the first 10 postoperative days to guide identification of patients with bacteremia.