Observational studyBMJ (Clinical research ed.)2023
Association between patient-surgeon gender concordance and mortality after surgery in the United States: retrospective observational study.
Observational study in BMJ (Clinical research ed.), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 18 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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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.
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Who cites it
18 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The association between physician sex and patient outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC health services research · 2025Pooled it
- Sex of surgeons and team composition and patients' length of stay after surgery: evidence from inpatient claims data in China.BMC medicine · 2026Article
- Association of surgeon sex with postoperative adverse outcomes in adult cardiac surgery: a nationwide cohort study.Journal of cardiothoracic surgery · 2026Article
- Racial and Sex Differences in Postoperative Mortality Between Patients With Versus Without Dementia.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2026Article
- Patient-Surgeon Sex Concordance and Clinical Outcomes After Adult Cardiac Surgery.Journal of the American Heart Association · 2026Article
- Family physician pay inequality: a qualitative study exploring how physician responses to perceived patient expectations may explain gender, race, and immigration status pay differences.CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne · 2025Article
- Steel and Grace: The Women Who Shaped Indian Orthopedic Surgery.Indian journal of orthopaedics · 2025Review
- Long-Term Outcomes Following Catheter-Based Therapies in Older Adults With Acute Pulmonary Embolism.JACC. Advances · 2025Article
- The Association Between Online Surgeon Ratings and Patients' Postoperative Outcomes in the United States.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2025Article
- Long-Term Postoperative Outcomes by Surgeon Gender and Patient-Surgeon Gender Concordance in the US.JAMA surgery · 2025Article
- Surgeon Sex and Postoperative Resource Utilization: A Population-Based Cohort Study.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2025Article
- Impact of surgeon caseload, case mix, and team composition on gender disparities in cholecystectomy outcomes.BJS open · 2025Article
- The gender gap in academic surgery: the electronic health record.BMC surgery · 2025Article
- Observational
- Females at a Clear Disadvantage with Postoperative Myocardial Infarction Symptoms.Journal of cardiovascular development and disease · 2024Article
- Association Between Surgeon Sex and Days Alive at Home Following Surgery: A Population-Based Cohort Study.Annals of surgery open : perspectives of surgical history, education, and clinical approaches · 2024Article
- The joy of surgery: how gender influences surgeons' experiences.Surgical endoscopy · 2024Article
- Analysis of Barbie medical and science career dolls: descriptive quantitative study.BMJ (Clinical research ed.) · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
14 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
objectiveTo determine whether patient-surgeon gender concordance is associated with mortality of patients after surgery in the United States.
designRetrospective observational study.
settingAcute care hospitals in the US.
participants100% of Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries aged 65-99 years who had one of 14 major elective or non-elective (emergent or urgent) surgeries in 2016-19.
main outcome measuresMortality after surgery, defined as death within 30 days of the operation. Adjustments were made for patient and surgeon characteristics and hospital fixed effects (effectively comparing patients within the same hospital).
resultsAmong 2 902 756 patients who had surgery, 1 287 845 (44.4%) had operations done by surgeons of the same gender (1 201 712 (41.4%) male patient and male surgeon, 86 133 (3.0%) female patient and female surgeon) and 1 614 911 (55.6%) were by surgeons of different gender (52 944 (1.8%) male patient and female surgeon, 1 561 967 (53.8%) female patient and male surgeon). Adjusted 30 day mortality after surgery was 2.0% for male patient-male surgeon dyads, 1.7% for male patient-female surgeon dyads, 1.5% for female patient-male surgeon dyads, and 1.3% for female patient-female surgeon dyads. Patient-surgeon gender concordance was associated with a slightly lower mortality for female patients (adjusted risk difference -0.2 percentage point (95% confidence interval -0.3 to -0.1); P<0.001), but a higher mortality for male patients (0.3 (0.2 to 0.5); P<0.001) for elective procedures, although the difference was small and not clinically meaningful. No evidence suggests that operative mortality differed by patient-surgeon gender concordance for non-elective procedures.
conclusionsPost-operative mortality rates were similar (ie, the difference was small and not clinically meaningful) among the four types of patient-surgeon gender dyads.
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