Researchers show that US surgeons operate better than their male counterparts – Liberation

Would the scalpel stroke of a surgeon be safer than that of a surgeon? Patients operated by women would in any case have less risk of dying in the long term, reports a study published Wednesday, April 23 in The medical journal Jama (Journal of the American Medical Association). In detail, 3 % of the patients spent on the billiards of a man died in the ninety days of their operation. Against 2.6 % of those cared for by a woman.

To achieve this result, the authors of this report – researchers associated at the University of California in Los Angeles (United States) or linked to various medical institutions in the city – relied on American health insurance data for seniors, medication. In total, the cases of more than 2 million beneficiaries who apply for reimbursement for an operation between 2016 and 2019 were taken into account.

Although voluminous, this test population, however, includes its own biases. To start, she only understands patients over the age of 65. Then it only concerns the United States. « Consequently, our research may not be generalizable to other populations », warn the researchers.

Finally, in a country where only 24 % of generalist surgeons are women and where The inequalities of wages between genres persistsome hidden variables may not have been taken into account. For example, it is possible that surgeons in post are assigned cases « Less serious » that their colleagues. Which would then question the results of the authors.

While waiting for new studies to complete their research, the authors still put several hypotheses on the table to explain their result. The first: the surgeons would more scrupulously follow medical protocols in the care they provide. For example, A study published in 2008 revealed that they more often advised their patients with breast cancer of adjuvant radiotherapy, that is to say a recommended additional treatment to reduce the risks of a recurrence.

« Second, surgeons may communicate more with patients and medical staff, » supposes the study. This would make it possible to detect a complication more quickly after the operation. Finally, the scalpel in hand, they would be more careful and would take more time. To remove a gallbladder, They would thus put an average of a hundred minutes as part of a scheduled operation. Eleven more than their colleagues.

Another discovery of the report: Better that women take place between them. Unlike men, the « Concordance of the genre » Patients with their doctor plays a role by reducing their rate of readmission or complications of a few tenths of percentage points. In this case, 7.7 % of women followed by a man must return by the hospital box within three months of the operation. Conversely, only 7.3 % of them know this obligation when they are followed by a surgeon.

« Patients may be more willing to share their concerns and their first symptoms due to complications with women surgeons », underlines the study to explain this difference. Likewise, they would feel more comfortable during physical exams, which would allow better risk detection.