A recent University of California Los Angeles study found patient-surgeon "gender concordance" does not affect patient outcomes.
The study, published in The BMJ, examined data from more than 2.9 million Medicare patients who underwent one of 14 types of surgeries between 2016 and 2019. Procedures included abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, appendectomy, coronary artery bypass surgery, knee or hip replacement, hysterectomy, spinal fusion, removal of the prostate and removal of the thyroid.
Among patients, 44.4% had operations by surgeons of the same gender (41.4% male and male, 3% female and female) and 55.6% were done by surgeons of different genders (1.8% male patient and female surgeon, 53.8% female patient and male surgeon).
The study found no clinically meaningful difference between genders in 30-day mortality outcomes.
According to a separate study published in August in JAMA Surgery, female surgeons have better long-term patient outcomes.