Study: Procedures performed by older surgeons have lower mortality rates

Editor's Note

In this study, non-elective surgical procedures performed by older surgeons (aged 50 and up) had lower mortality rates than those performed by younger surgeons, and mortality rates did not differ significantly by surgeon gender.

A total of 892,187 Medicare patients who had one of 20 common types of emergency surgery performed by 45,826 surgeons between 2011 and 2014 were analyzed. The researchers focused on non-elective procedures for which patients are less likely to select their surgeons, and surgeons are less likely to select their patients.

Mortality rates were:

• 6.6% for surgeons aged 40 and younger
• 6.5% for surgeons 40 to 49 years old
• 6.4% for surgeons 50 to 59 years old
• 6.3% for surgeons aged 60 and older.

The findings suggest a need for more oversight and supervision of surgeons in their early post-residency careers, though further research is warranted, the authors say.