Clinicians Often Fail to Rescue Women With Complications After High-Risk Surgery

TUESDAY, Oct. 29, 2024 (HealthDay News) — Clinicians fail to rescue female patients with complications after high-risk vascular and cardiac surgeries more often than male patients, according to a study published online Oct. 16 in JAMA Surgery.

Catherine M. Wagner, M.D., from Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, and colleagues examined whether female patients die more often than male patients after high-risk surgery because female patients have more complications or because clinicians fail to rescue them from those complications. The analysis included data from 863,305 Medicare beneficiaries undergoing high-risk vascular or cardiac surgery (October 2015 to February 2020).

The researchers found that female and male patients had similar rates of complications (female, 14.98 percent; male, 14.37 percent; adjusted relative risk, 1.04). Female patients had higher rates of 30-day mortality (female, 4.22 percent; male, 3.34 percent; adjusted relative risk, 1.26) and higher rates of failure to rescue (female, 10.71 percent; male, 8.58 percent; adjusted relative risk, 1.25). When examining outcomes by procedure, findings persisted.

“Female patients undergoing high-risk surgery are more likely to die of postoperative complications than male patients, and efforts to recognize and respond to complications before they result in death may narrow the sex disparity in mortality after high-risk surgery,” the authors write.

One author disclosed ties to the medical device industry.

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