Researchers recently claimed that older patients would do well to avoid surgery on their surgeon's birthday. According to these researchers, they would have a greater risk of dying in the month following the operation. However, further research will be needed to confirm this astonishing claim.
A surgical operation scheduled soon? According to a study published in the British Medical Journal, it might be a good idea to ask your surgeon's birthday. Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) School of Medicine claim that 30-day mortality rates are 23% higher in patients over 65> , when they undergo an operation on the birthday of the surgeon. As part of the study, doctors analyzed records of 981,000 operations (17 types of operations) by 48,000 doctors between 2011 and 2014 . Among these operations, 2,064 (i.e. 0.2%) were carried out by practitioners on their birthday.
For each operation, the study took into account the characteristics of the patient and the surgeon. The objective was to compare the performance of the latter on his birthday with the other days. According to the results, patients who underwent surgery on the surgeon's birthday have a thirty-day mortality rate of 6.9% . For patients operated on another day, the same rate is 5.6% .
“Our study is the first to show the association between a surgeon's birthday and patient mortality, but more research is needed before concluding that birthdays do indeed have a significant impact on the performance of surgeons "Said Yusuke Tsugawa, lead director of the study in a statement. In addition, it should be noted that the study focused on elderly patients. Thus, the results do not apply to younger people.
The doctor and his team suspect that on their birthday, the surgeons experience a drop in concentration. Yusuke Tsugawa indicates, however, that in the current state of things, it is not inadvisable to avoid an operation if it is scheduled on the surgeon's birthday. On the other hand, if the doctors' hypothesis is confirmed one day, it could be that in the future surgeons will be banned from operating on their birthday!
