ArticleSurgery2018
Disparities in access to emergency general surgery care in the United States.
Article in Surgery, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- One-Year Outcomes Following Emergency Laparotomy: A Systematic Review.World journal of surgery · 2022Pooled it
- Access to specialty healthcare in urban versus rural US populations: a systematic literature review.BMC health services research · 2019Pooled it
- Racial disparities in outcomes after parastomal hernia repair: a national analysis.Surgical endoscopy · 2026Article
- United States benign gallbladder disease mortality, 1999-2024: rising cholecystitis and persistent demographic and geographic disparities.Surgical endoscopy · 2026Article
- Balancing Objectivity and Humanity: Ethical Challenges and Considerations in Surgical Candidacy Decisions.HEC forum : an interdisciplinary journal on hospitals' ethical and legal issues · 2026Article
- Article
- Trauma and emergency surgical care at rural emergency hospital-eligible facilities: Interstate variation and policy implications for rural health systems.The journal of trauma and acute care surgery · 2026Article
- Racial Disparities in Access to Minimally Invasive Emergency General Surgery.JAMA network open · 2026Article
- An Assessment of Hospital Performance in Emergency General Surgery Using Direct and Indirect Standardization.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2026Article
- Evaluation of an Automated Software Method Versus a Delphi Process to Translate Emergency General Surgery ICD Diagnosis Codes: Lost in Translation.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2025Article
- Spatial Accessibility to Emergency Departments and Surgical Treatment for Patients with Acute Appendicitis in South Korea.Yonsei medical journal · 2025Article
- Emergency general surgery: The prevalence of non-operative consultations and importance of a registry.Surgery in practice and science · 2025Article
- Exploring rural-urban differences in the receipt of nonelective cancer-specific gastrointestinal surgery using a multilevel mixed-effects approach.Journal of gastrointestinal surgery : official journal of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract · 2025Article
- Hospitals in distressed communities have higher emergency general surgery mortality.American journal of surgery · 2025Article
- Trends in Timely Access to High-Quality and Affordable Surgical Care in the United States.Annals of surgery · 2024Article
- Article
- Application of Community Detection Methods to Identify Emergency General Surgery-Specific Regional Networks.JAMA network open · 2024Article
- Failure to rescue following emergency general surgery: A national analysis.Surgery open science · 2024Article
- Socioeconomic disparities in lumbar fusion rates were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic.North American Spine Society journal · 2024Article
- Impact of Sociodemographic and Hospital Factors on Inpatient Bilateral Reduction Mammaplasty: A National Inpatient Sample Analysis.Plastic and reconstructive surgery. Global open · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundAs fewer surgeons take emergency general surgery call and hospitals decrease emergency services, a crisis in access looms in the United States. We examined national emergency general surgery capacity and county-level determinants of access to emergency general surgery care with special attention to disparities.
methodsTo identify potential emergency general surgery hospitals, we queried the database of the American Hospital Association for "acute care general hospital," with "surgical services," and "emergency department," and ≥1 "operating room." Internet search and direct contact confirmed emergency general surgery services that covered the emergency room 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Geographic and population-level emergency general surgery access was derived from Geographic Information Systems and US Census.
resultsOf the 6,356 hospitals in the 2013 American Hospital Association database, only 2,811 were emergency general surgery hospitals. Counties with greater percentages of black, Hispanic, uninsured, and low-education individuals and rural counties disproportionately lacked access to emergency general surgery care. For example, counties above the 75th percentile of African American population (10.2%) had >80% odds of not having an emergency general surgery hospital compared with counties below the 25th percentile of African American population (0.6%).
conclusionGaps in access to emergency general surgery services exist across the United States, disproportionately affecting underserved, rural communities. Policy initiatives need to increase emergency general surgery capacity nationwide.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.