Background The purpose of this prospective study was to examine the influence of hospital
caseload on long-term outcome following standardization of rectal cancer surgery at a
national level. Methods Data relating to all 3388 Norwegian patients with rectal cancer
treated for cure between November 1993 and December 1999 were recorded in a national
database. Treating hospitals were divided into four groups according to their annual
caseload: hospitals in group 1 (n= 4) carried out 30 or more procedures, those in group 2 …

Introduction The purpose of this prospective multicentre multilevel study was to investigate
the influence of hospital caseload on long-term outcomes following standardization of rectal
cancer surgery in the Rectal Cancer Project of the Spanish Society of Surgeons. Methods
Data relating to 2910 consecutive patients with rectal cancer treated for cure between March
2006 and March 2010 were recorded in a prospective database. Hospitals were classified
according to number of patients treated per year as low-volume, intermediate-volume, or …