Statement of the surgical working group upper gastrointestinal tract (CAOGI) and the quality committee of the German Society for General and Visceral Surgery (DGAV) on the modified minimum caseload requirements for esophagus resection

A positive association between the number of operations and postoperative hospital mortality, the so-called caseload-treatment result relation, has been confirmed many times in the literature; however, the definition of the underlying volumes is not uniform. The number of 26 resections/year/institution, which has now been established by the Federal Joint Committee as the future minimum caseload requirement, is discussed in this statement of the surgical working group upper gastrointestinal tract (CAOGI) and the quality committee of the German Society for General and Visceral Surgery (DGAV), taking the treatment situation in Germany and the current data situation into account.