If you have the possibility to choose the exact day of your surgery, avoid weekends and the month of February. Indeed, two studies presented in european congress of anesthesia from Stockholm, Sweden, analyzed times of day, week and year when the risk of hospital death is highest.
The first study, conducted by Japanese researchers, was carried out on nearly 55 million people and based on data from 72 international studies. Result: admission to hospital on weekends is linked to an increase in mortality between 15 and 17%. In question, according to scientists, a lower quality of care at the end of the week. Only patients who have undergone a high-risk operation during the week would be the exception to the rule. The units of intensive care work just as well on weekends as they do during the week, according to the researchers.
More risk in February
The second study, carried out by scientists at Berlin Medical University, points in the same direction as the Japanese study. According to the German team, the risk of mortality from surgical interventions on weekends is 22% higher than on weekdays. The researchers went even further, analyzing the risks throughout the year on more than 210,000 patients. They believe that operations carried out in the afternoon are riskier, as are those that take place during the month of February.
“Several factors may have influenced this result, for example, it could be that the level of care was different throughout the day and between the week and the weekend. Perhaps patients treated in the after- noon and weekends in our study were more seriously ill “, they specify. Further research is needed to confirm these results.
