Postoperative mortality analysis on nationwide data from diagnosis procedure combination database in Japan

INTRODUCTION: The present study aimed to investigate the postoperative mortality due to all surgeries at the prefectural level using a nationwide diagnosis procedure combination (DPC) database in Japan and to evaluate the data according to temporal changes and regional differences. METHODS: Data were provided in accordance with the guidelines indicated on the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, Japan. The number of cases and in-hospital mortality were calculated for each representative surgery for each hospitalization according to fiscal year of discharge from 2011 to 2018 and according to prefecture. Values of ≥10 in each aggregated data cell were presented. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The aggregated result data contain 474,154 records, with about 2,000 different surgical codes. More than 10 mortalities were recorded in only 16,890 data cells, which can be used in the mortality analysis. In the analyses of artificial head insertion, cerebral aneurysm neck clipping, coronary artery and aortic bypass grafting, and tracheotomy, regional differences and a declining trend were observed in some categories. CONCLUSION: In addition to considering categories that can be used in the analysis, careful consideration must be given to the inclusion of background context such as the quality of care.