Black children are more than twice as likely as white children to die after surgical complications requiring further operation, according to research presented at the American Society of Anesthesiologists' 2020 annual meeting.
Researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, examined data from the American College of Surgeons' National Surgical Quality Improvement Pediatric Participant Use Data file.
The study included 276,917 children who had inpatient surgery between 2012 and 2017. There were 10,425 who experienced complications requiring additional surgery, and a total of 209 subsequently died.
Overall, 8,409 white children and 2,016 Black children had complications necessitating reoperation.
Of the 209 children who died, 135 were white and 74 were Black. This means there were fatalities for 1.6 percent of all white children who experienced a complication, compared to 3.7 percent of all Black children who suffered a complication.
While Nationwide Children's researchers found Black children were more than twice as likely as white children to die after reoperation, a separate study by UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers suggested Black children were also significantly less likely to have surgery.
After reviewing data on 227,025 children — including 11,018 who'd received surgery in the previous 12 months — the Dallas-based researchers concluded that Black, Hispanic and Asian children were about half as likely as white children to have surgery. There was no evidence suggesting white children were more likely to need surgery or have cosmetic procedures.
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