Women who have undergone surgery by a male surgeon are more likely to die or suffer from complications after the surgery compared to a man who has undergone surgery.
- When a male surgeon operates on a woman, she would have 32% more risk of dying compared to an operated man.
- “Implicit gender biases, attitudes, deep-rooted stereotypes” could explain these worrying results.
“Is there a link between the concordance of sex between the surgeon and the patient and the post-operative consequences?” This is the question asked by a team of Canadian scientists. To find out for sure, the researchers carried out a study, including the results were published in the medical journal JAMA Surgery December 8. In order to carry out their work, they analyzed research carried out in Canada from 2007 to 2019, relating to 1,320,108 patients operated by 2,937 surgeons. For each of the surgical procedures examined, the sex of the patient, that of the healthcare professional and the post-operative consequences were taken into account.
Of the participants, 602,560 patients were “in gender match with their surgeon.” Clearly, 509,634 men were operated on by male surgeons and 92,926 women underwent surgery led by a female surgeon. “717,548 people were gender discordant (667,279 patients operated on by a man and 50,269 men operated on by a woman)”, can we read in the study. A total of 189,390 patients, or 14.9%, experienced at least one complication after the operation.
32% increased risk of dying
Scientists found that women operated on by a male surgeon were 32% more likely to die than a sick man. “We found that patients operated on by men were 15% more likely to have poorer outcomes than patients operated on by women,” declared to Guardian Dr. Angela Jerath, co-author of the study.
Conversely, when men were operated on by a woman, they generally had better postoperative follow-up. “These results are concerning because there should be no gender difference in the post-operative outcomes of patients, regardless of the gender of the surgeon,” she continued.
According to Dr. Angela Jerath, the “implicit gender biases, attitudes, deep-rooted stereotypes” may be a possible explanation for these results. Another hypothesis is the differences between men and women in terms of communication and interpersonal skills, which manifest themselves in the discussions of surgeons with patients before the operation. The scientists concluded that more work needs to be done to understand this issue.
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