A recent study conducted by a team of researchers led by Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada, revealed that patients who underwent surgeries performed by female surgeons were less likely to experience complications and required less care compared to their male counterparts. Records indicate that female surgeons tend to work more slowly and achieve better outcomes by spending more time in the operating room.

Dr. Christopher Wallis from the hospital and the principal investigator of the study said: “These results should prompt male surgeons to rethink their approach to surgery and learn from their female colleagues for the benefit of their patients. As a male surgeon, I believe this data should serve as a strong motivation for me and my other colleagues to stop and consider why this is happening.”

He added: “We looked at medical complications, patient readmission records, and post-surgery mortality rates among 1.2 million patients in Ontario, the country of the study, between 2007 and 2019.

The records included 25 different surgical procedures on the heart, brain, bones, organs, and blood vessels. The analysis showed that 13.9% of patients treated by male surgeons experienced negative events post-surgery after 90 days, a broad term that includes death and medical complications ranging from issues requiring further surgery to major infections, heart attacks, and strokes, compared to 12.5% for patients treated by female surgeons.

Patients treated by female surgeons also fared better one year after surgery, with 20.7% experiencing a harmful event post-surgery, compared to 25% of patients of male surgical doctors.

Dr. Mai Blum and her colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm reviewed the outcomes of 150,000 patients after undergoing gallbladder removal surgery and found that patients of female surgeons experienced fewer complications and had shorter hospital stays compared to patients of male surgeons. The reason is that female surgeons work more slowly than their male counterparts and are less likely to switch from laparoscopic to open surgery during the procedure, achieving better outcomes by spending more time in the operating room.