This retrospective, cohort study was based on nationwide Taiwanese data obtained from the Taiwan Cancer Registry (TCR), the National Health Insurance (NHI) claims repository, the National Death Registry, and the Registry of Board-certified Specialists and Hospitals. All sources were administered by the Health and Welfare Data Science Center (Taiwanese Ministry of Health and Welfare), a state agency that coordinates collection of hospital administrative data linked with death certificates. We extracted records for all Taiwanese subjects who had undergone elective transthoracic esophagectomy for cancer with gastric tube reconstruction in Taiwanese hospital trusts between 2008 and 2015. Patients with double malignancies or missing information were excluded, as were patients who received complex esophageal resections (e.g., esophagectomy combined with laryngectomy) or reconstruction methods other than gastric tube reconstruction. Figure 1 shows the flow of participants through the study. Patients were categorized according to the day of surgery (weekday group: surgical procedures starting Monday through Friday; weekend group: surgical procedures starting on Saturday or Sunday). Local institutional review board approval (Chang Gung Memorial Hospital IRB Reference Number: 201801603B0) was obtained to process and analyze all records. The need for patient consent was waived, because all study data were deidentified.![]()
Flow of patients through the study
