United States: Heart bypass surgeries have become safer, but new data shows that not everyone is experiencing the same benefits. Black patients have a 22% higher chance of dying in the hospital after their surgeries compared to others.
Dr. Vinicius Moreira, the lead author of the study, explained that Black patients face higher rates of serious problems after coronary artery bypass surgery, including death and cardiac arrest. It’s important for everyone to understand these differences so that we can work towards better care for all patients!
‘These are worrying figures that must prompt governments and health care systems into immediate action,’ said Moreira, chief anesthesiology resident, Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center, Chicago.
As reported by the HealthDay, his team described its findings Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists in Philadelphia.
Bypass is medically known as coronary artery bypass graft surgery or heart bypass surgery commonly abbreviated as CABG. When one of the coronary arteries that produces blood required by the heart becomes blocked up by cholesterol deposits, surgeons harvest a segment of the artery, including from a leg, arm, or chest wall, and implant it in order to repair the vessels and restore circulation.
According to Moreira in a meeting news release, progress in cardiovascular medicine including less invasions Cardiac operations and modern Mechanical Circulatory Support Devices have enhanced life expectancy after bypass procedure.
However, are all patients enjoying this benefit?
To this end, his team employed a nationally representative claims database to study results for slightly more than 1.2 million patients with a bypass in the United States between 2016 and 2021. Self-reported race was available in 604 patients; about 76% of the patients were white, 7.4% were Hispanic and 6.75% were black.
Patients averaged 77 years of age at the time of their surgeries, although minority patients tended to be younger: The mean age was 63 years for Black patients, 64 years for Hispanic patients.
Interestingly, Black patients were older than whites on average, but the proportion of patients in this group who died in the hospital after bypass surgery was higher than that among whites.
Overall, Black patients died soon after their operation at 3.2 percent more than the death rate of Whites and Hispanics, who died at 2.4 percent and 2.5 percent, respectively, according to the study findings.
Moreira’s team determined that means a 22% higher risk of post-operative death for blacks and a 23% higher risk of a post-operation cardiac arrest compared to whites.
Hospital stays following a bypass operation were also longer for the Black patients and average of 11.8 days compared to the 9.6 days for the white patients and 10.7 days for Hispanic patients.
All of this also meant higher hospital bills for the minority patients. The average bill for a bypass for a black patient was 23,000 USD higher than the bill presented to the white patients.
Hispanic patients incurred even higher bills which is 78,000 USD on average than the bill presented to the white patients the study found.
Beyond their higher death rate after bypass surgery, too many Black Americans who almost require bypass might not be getting the life-extending operation, Moreira added.
“We found that compared to the white patients, a lower proportion of the Black patients had bypass surgery when it was indicated,” Moreira said.
“It is imperative that the modern policies focus on improving the screening, diagnosis and the treatment of the chronic conditions that ultimately added the black population and the other minorities,” he added.
According to the Moreira and the steps could be taken to gain equity for Black heart surgery patients.