Thread by @DrsMeena

1/ I have thoughts; I have a lot of thoughts.
"In a study of > 1.3MIL patients getting surgery, female patients treated by male surgeons had worse postoperative outcomes...."
Let's talk about this (thread 👇🏽)
#ILookLikeASurgeon
ja.ma/3rQMPV7 @JAMASurgery @JAMANetwork

2/Great article👇🏽
"female pts also had a 16% ⬆️risk of complications; an 11% ⬆️ risk of readmission; & were 20% more likely to have to stay in hospital longer."
Women had a ⬆️risk of death, readmission or complications when a man performed the operation."
theguardian.com/society/2022/j…

3/ Looking at the study itself, it's a retrospective cohort study that attempted to correct for many factors (confounders) incl: age, sex, geographic location, socioeconomic status, rurality, general comorbidity, surgeon sex, years in practice, specialty, and surgical volume.

4/ What about absolute risk? "female patients treated by male surgeons had consistently higher adjusted rates of postoperative events compared w/those treated by female surgeons (range in difference b/w male & female surgeons, 0.6% to 2.5% among specialties)."
That's big....

5/ So, what can be done (besides screaming in fear)?
Because, let's face it, in an emergency, it's not like you have a lot of choice over the sex of your surgeon.

Last: Obviously, there is bias that needs to be addressed in training.
But surgery is still a long way from having a gender balance: 41% of early stage surgeons but only 30% of higher trainees & 14% of consultants.
We ALL need more female surgeons to improve patient care.