You’re more likely to die if you’re treated by a male surgeon, new study finds
BEING treated by a male surgeon could be more dangerous than having a woman in charge, a study shows.
Canadian researchers found patients operated on by men were a quarter more likely to die within a year than those seen by women.
Dr Christopher Wallis, of the University of Toronto, said: “Patients treated by female surgeons have lower rates of adverse postoperative outcomes, including death.
“To our knowledge, these are the first data to assess the association between surgeon sex and outcomes beyond 30 days following surgery.
“While technical ability is associated with short-term surgical outcomes, other factors, including patient selection, may contribute more to longer-term outcomes.”
Around 3.1million surgeries were carried out in England and Wales in 2020, down a third on the expected number because of the Covid pandemic.
Some 85,000 die within 30 days of a procedure every year, according to research.
This can be caused by complications from the op — including bleeding, sepsis and failure of vital organs — as well as pre-existing medical conditions.
Previous studies have shown complications in this time frame are more common when a man is carrying out the surgery.
The latest research, published in JAMA Surgery, looked at outcomes over a longer period of time of up to a year.
Researchers tracked data from nearly 1.2million Canadian adults who had common elective surgeries from 2007 to 2019.
Of those, more than 1million were seen by a man, while 151,000 were treated by a woman.
Around 2 per cent died within 90 days of an operation and 4.3 per cent died within a year.
Patients operated on by a man were 8 per cent more likely to suffer death, readmission or a complication within 90 days than those seen by a woman.
They were 6 per cent more likely to within a year.
Patients were 25 per cent more likely to die within 90 days and 24 per cent more likely to within a year.