PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Black and Hispanic patients much more likely to die after surgery than white patients

About 12,000 deaths may have been avoided if disparities had been addressed, large national study shows

2023-10-15
(Press-News.org) SAN FRANCISCO — About 12,000 Black and Hispanic patients who died after surgery the past two decades may have lived if there were no racial and ethnic disparities among Americans having surgery, suggests a study of more than 1.5 million inpatient procedures presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting. This estimate draws attention to the human toll of disparities in surgical outcomes, with Black patients being 42% more likely and Hispanic patients 21% more likely to die after surgery compared to white patients.

Unless efforts to narrow the racial and ethnic gap in surgical outcomes intensify, preventable deaths will continue among minority patients, the researchers said. The development of equity policies to address disparity gaps can make a difference, with even a 2% reduction in projected excess mortality rates among Black patients averting roughly 3,000 post-surgery deaths in the next decade, they determined.

“This study represents the first effort to move beyond merely documenting the ongoing disparities in surgical outcomes in the U.S. by quantifying the aggregate human toll of these disparities,” said Christian Mpody, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, lead author of the study and assistant professor of anesthesiology and pediatrics at The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus. “We should not become used to reading statistics about people dying. It’s essential to remember that beyond the statistics, odds ratios and p-values, these are real people — brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers.”

“The findings bring to light the deaths that may have been preventable if people of various racial and ethnic backgrounds had comparable mortality rates to white patients,” he said. “That’s important for conveying the gravity of the issue to policymakers, health care professionals and the general public.”

Researchers analyzed the Nationwide Inpatient Sample data of more than a million surgical procedures performed at 7,740 U.S. hospitals between 2000 and 2020. They determined Black patients were 42% more likely than white patients to die within 30 days of surgery, driven by higher mortality in the Northeast (Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont). Hispanic patients were 21% more likely than white patients to die within 30 days of surgery, driven by higher mortality in the West (Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming).

Although death rates declined for all groups over the 20-year period, the disparity gaps did not narrow over time. The study did not identify causes of death.

“It’s important to note that disparities in these regions do not necessarily mean that the surgical care is inferior. It may reflect overall population health and socioeconomic conditions,” said Dr. Mpody. “Our team is currently investigating the underlying causes of these regional variations.”

Dr. Mpody said the study didn’t assess the effectiveness of specific interventions or policies, noting that addressing the problem requires a three-pronged approach involving research, education and service. Suggested interventions by the authors include increasing investment in disparity research and incorporating race and racism lectures in medical and nursing school curricula. Health systems should: provide cultural competency training; focus on diversity in grand rounds; invest in patient education and health literacy; develop personalized medicine approaches that take into account individual patients’ needs and race-sensitive protocols; and increase the number of minority providers.

THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ANESTHESIOLOGISTS

Founded in 1905, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) is an educational, research and scientific professional society with more than 56,000 members organized to advance the medical practice of anesthesiology and secure its future. ASA is committed to ensuring anesthesiologists evaluate and supervise the medical care of all patients before, during and after surgery. ASA members also lead the care of critically ill patients in intensive care units, as well as treat pain in both acute and chronic settings.

For more information on the field of anesthesiology, visit the American Society of Anesthesiologists online at asahq.org. To learn more about how anesthesiologists help ensure patient safety, visit asahq.org/MadeforThisMoment. Join the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 social conversation today. Like ASA on Facebook, follow ASALifeline on Twitter and use the hashtag #ANES23.

 

# # #

END



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Presentation of tirzepatide weight-loss study results at ObesityWeek®

2023-10-15
ROCKVILLE, Md.— After 12 initial weeks of weight loss with intensive lifestyle intervention alone, participants in the SURMOUNT-3 study who were randomly assigned to tirzepatide for 72 weeks achieved a total mean reduction in baseline body weight of 24.3% at week 84. Results of the study, conducted by Eli Lilly & Company, will be presented during the 41st Annual Meeting of The Obesity Society (TOS) at ObesityWeek® 2023 scheduled for Oct. 14–17, in Dallas, Texas. The study will be published in the journal Nature Medicine and publication will coincide with the presentation at the conference. "These are extraordinary findings, ...

Anesthesiologist-led blood management programs save hospitals significant amounts of blood and reduce costs with same or better patient outcomes

2023-10-15
SAN FRANCISCO — Blood management programs that reduced or avoided transfusions saved a health system millions of dollars annually, with a return on investment of more than $7 for every dollar spent, while achieving the same or better outcomes, suggests research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting. Over the past 10 years, the Johns Hopkins Health System established a comprehensive blood management program with two primary goals: 1) to reduce unnecessary transfusions across the five-hospital health system, and 2) to ...

Two easy fixes could reduce bleeding after cesarean delivery

2023-10-14
SAN FRANCISCO — Two simple solutions could help prevent severe bleeding (postpartum hemorrhage) after cesarean delivery, suggests research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting. As the leading cause of maternal mortality in the U.S. at the time of birth, postpartum hemorrhage is more common after cesarean deliveries than vaginal births. Both solutions help address uterine atony, which causes up to 80% of postpartum hemorrhage. Uterine atony is when, after delivery, the uterus remains soft and weak instead of contracting to compress the blood vessels that had been attached to the placenta. One solution involves infusing a medication to help the ...

AI pain recognition system could help detect patients’ pain before, during and after surgery

2023-10-14
SAN FRANCISCO — An automated pain recognition system using artificial intelligence (AI) holds promise as an unbiased method to detect pain in patients before, during and after surgery, according to research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting. Currently, subjective methods are used to assess pain, including the Visual Analog Scale (VAS) — where patients rate their own pain — and the Critical-Care Pain Observation Tool (CPOT) — where health care professionals rate the patient’s pain based on facial expression, ...

More patients go home instead of to long-term-care facility when sedation for common procedures is administered or directed by anesthesiologist

2023-10-14
SAN FRANCISCO — Patients who had common procedures performed outside of the operating room (OR) were more likely to go home instead of to a long-term care facility when they were discharged from the hospital if their sedation was administered or directed by an anesthesiologist, rather than by a physician who is not a trained anesthesiologist, according to a first-of-its-kind study presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting. Patients who need catheters placed in a vein, angiograms (X-ray of the blood vessels), image-guided biopsies and many other procedures typically are treated in the interventional radiology (IR) suite instead of the OR and given ...

Cefepime vs piperacillin-tazobactam in adults hospitalized with acute infection

2023-10-14
About The Study: Among 2,511 adults hospitalized with acute infection, treatment with the antibiotic piperacillin-tazobactam did not increase the incidence of acute kidney injury or death in this randomized clinical trial. Treatment with the antibiotic cefepime resulted in more neurological dysfunction.  Authors: Edward T. Qian, M.D., M.Sc., of Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, is the corresponding author. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jama.2023.20583) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, including other ...

Virtual reality reduces anxiety among caregivers of children having surgery, study finds

2023-10-14
SAN FRANCISCO — Virtual reality (VR) may be an effective and reliable tool to alleviate the anxiety experienced by most parents or caregivers when their child undergoes surgery, according to research presented at the ANESTHESIOLOGY® 2023 annual meeting. “When a child has a medical procedure, it is often emotionally unsettling for not just the patient, but the entire family,” said Thomas J. Caruso, M.D., Ph.D., FASA, senior author of the study and clinical professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine at Stanford University, California. “By ...

American Society of Anesthesiologists honors Stanley W. Stead, M.D., MBA, FASA, with its Distinguished Service Award

2023-10-14
SAN FRANCISCO — The American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) today presented Stanley W. Stead, M.D., MBA, FASA, with its 2022 Distinguished Service Award in recognition of his enduring contributions to advancing patient-centered, physician-led health care, and his advocacy related to health care economics, including value-based care and equitable physician payment models. The award is the highest honor ASA bestows and is presented annually to a member who has transformed the specialty of anesthesiology. A nationally recognized thought leader in health care economics, information technology and quality of care, Dr. Stead ...

Move over carbon, the nanotube family just got bigger

Move over carbon, the nanotube family just got bigger
2023-10-14
Tokyo, Japan – Researchers from Tokyo Metropolitan University have engineered a range of new single-walled transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) nanotubes with different compositions, chirality, and diameters by templating off boron-nitride nanotubes. They also realized ultra-thin nanotubes grown inside the template, and successfully tailored compositions to create a family of new nanotubes. The ability to synthesize a diverse range of structures offers unique insights into their growth mechanism ...

RESEARCH ALERT: City of Hope researchers pinpoint nongenetic mechanisms in lung cancer resistance to one commonly used therapy

2023-10-14
FINDINGS In a recent study led by Ravi Salgia, M.D., Ph.D., the Arthur & Rosalie Kaplan Chair in Medical Oncology, a team of researchers from City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, and other institutions found that nongenetic mechanisms are important in lung cancer patients who develop a resistance to one cancer therapy. Their findings were published in the October 13 issue of the journal Science Advances.  The team’s study explored resistance to the anti-cancer medication sotorasib in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Sotorasib inhibits a specific mutation ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

First-in-human trial shows promising results for DLL3-targeted antibody-drug conjugate SHR-4849 in relapsed small cell lung cancer

Ifinatamab deruxtecan demonstrates high response rate in previously treated extensive-stage small cell lung cancer: Phase 2 IDeate-Lung01 trial

Higher blood pressure in childhood linked to earlier death from heart disease in adulthood

AI helped older adults report accurate blood pressure readings at home

High blood pressure in childhood and premature cardiovascular disease mortality

Zidesamtinib shows durable responses in ROS1 TKI pre-treated NSCLC, including patients with CNS disease and ROS1 G2032R mutations

Crizotinib fails to improve disease-free survival in resected early-stage ALK+ NSCLC

Ivonescimab plus chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in patients with EGFR+ NSCLC following 3rd-generation EGFR-TKI therapy

FLAURA2 trial shows osimertinib plus chemotherapy improves overall survival in eGFR-mutated advanced NSCLC

Aumolertinib plus chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in NSCLC with EGFR and concomitant tumor suppressor genes: ACROSS 2 phase III study

New antibody-drug conjugate shows promising efficacy in EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients

Iza-Bren in combination with osimertinib shows 100% response rate in EGFR-mutated NSCLC, phase II study finds

COMPEL study shows continuing osimertinib treatment through progression with the addition of chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in EGFR-mutated NSCLC

CheckMate 77T: Nivolumab maintains quality of life and reduces symptom deterioration in resectable NSCLC

Study validates AI lung cancer risk model Sybil in predominantly Black population at urban safety-net hospital

New medication lowered hard-to-control high blood pressure in people with chronic kidney disease

Innovative oncolytic virus and immunotherapy combinations pave the way for advanced cancer treatment

New insights into energy metabolism and immune dynamics could transform head and neck cancer treatment

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Steven Heymsfield named LSU Boyd Professor – LSU’s highest faculty honor

Study prompts new theory of human-machine communication

New method calculates rate of gene expression to understand cell fate

Researchers quantify rate of essential evolutionary process in the ocean

Innovation Crossroads companies join forces, awarded U.S. Air Force contract

Using new blood biomarkers, USC researchers find Alzheimer’s disease trial eligibility differs among various populations

Pioneering advances in in vivo CAR T cell production

Natural medicines target tumor vascular microenvironment to inhibit cancer growth

Coral-inspired pill offers a new window into the hidden world of the gut

nTIDE September2025 Jobs Report: Employment for people with disabilities surpasses prior high

When getting a job makes you go hungry

Good vibrations could revolutionize assisted reproductive technology

[Press-News.org] Black and Hispanic patients much more likely to die after surgery than white patients
About 12,000 deaths may have been avoided if disparities had been addressed, large national study shows