Operated patients more likely to die if surgery happens on surgeon's birthday

 

Elderly patients who have their surgeries on the birthday of their surgeon are 23% more likely to die in the 30-day postoperative period. That is according to an observational study that gathered the data of more than 980,000 patients and 47,000 surgeons. 

The researchers looked at 980,876 operations performed by 47,489 surgeons whose birthdays were evenly distributed throughout the year. Just 0.2% or a total of about 2,000 of these operations took place on the surgeons' birthday. The researchers note that the patients who underwent surgery during their surgeons' birthdays had similar characteristics with those who had surgeries on other days. Also, the average number of surgeries performed by each surgeon was similar during their birthdays and other days. 

The researchers concluded that the 30day mortality of patients on the surgeon’s birthday was 7.0% (6.9% after adjustment for both patient characteristics and surgeon fixed effects), while on other days mortality was 5.6%. 

The graph below illustrates this difference more clearly. 

So, don't forget to ask for your doctor's birthday before you sign yourself in for an operation!