Patients who undergo emergency abdominal surgery have a better chance of survival if their operation is carried out in a hospital where the procedure is done regularly.
Research carried out by the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland shows that when abdominal operations are done by hospitals on an irregular basis, mortality rates are higher.
The study's co-author, RCSI President Kenneth Mealy, says patients who undergo the surgery are "very vulnerable" and frequently have other medical conditions.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Mealy said there is a "huge variation in outcomes" both in Ireland and internationally.
He said they looked at more than 10,000 of abdominal operations in 24 public hospitals in Ireland over the last five years.
"We can very clearly see that survival is far higher amongst surgeons who have a high volume of this type of surgery," Mr Mealy said.
He said many of the surgeons in the study are only carrying out six or fewer of these operations every year.
"This is inappropriate, because the outcomes from surgeons with such low volumes are far worse. Fewer patients survive than those who carry out high volumes of these operations."
Mr Mealy said there is a variation of between 85 and 55 patients dying per thousand, depending on the volume of operations carried out by the surgeon, which he says is a 3% difference in survival.
"This is very significant. The 3% difference in outcomes in terms of mortality will always be considered very significant," he said.
He said the relationship between hospital size is "much more difficult to prove" because some high volume surgeons work in smaller hospitals, while a lot of low volume surgeons work in large hospitals.
He said he believes it relates to the team, and the "complexity of care required" to look after patients.
"It's not just the surgeon, it's the anaesthetist, critical care, other specialities. Many of these patients need to go on dialysis. There's expert nursing and ancillary healthcare worker support required to look after these complex patients."
Mr Mealy said he feels they are "professionally obliged" to indicate to patients that survival is better if they go to larger institutions with high volume surgeons.
He said the data collected is anonymous, so he does not know the names of surgeons who are high or low volume, or the names of the hospitals.
Mr Mealy said low volume surgeons should "look at their practice" and consider "not carrying out this surgery".
