Disparities evident among races in postsurgical deaths

Compared to white patients, Black patients are 42% more likely to die following high-risk surgery and Hispanic patients are 21% more likely to die. Overall, about 8,364 Black and 4,338 Hispanic excess postsurgical deaths occurred between 2000-2020. To eliminate the disparity in mortality by 2030, there would need to be an annualized reduction in the projected mortality rates among Black patients of 2.7% and .8% among Hispanic patients.

This comes from a new study published in Annals of Surgery. The study looked at 1.5 million high-risk surgeries performed between 2000-2020, among adults ages 18-64 across U.S. hospitals. Although the study authors adjusted for things like comorbidities and type of surgery, they did examine deaths compared to geographical location. For example, the largest gap between Black and white patient mortality existed in the Northeast. The largest gap between Hispanic and white patient mortality was in the West.

The study did find that postsurgical deaths decreased for all three groups during the time studied.