United States: When you’re getting heart surgery, doctors might find extra problems to fix at the same time. New studies show that this happens more often for men than for women. Dr. Catherine Wagner from the University of Michigan says this is not surprising. She explains that women usually get less help for heart problems compared to men.
Why Women Get Less Help During Heart Surgery?
As reported by U.S News, In one of the studies Wagner’s team focused on the atrial fibrillation (a-fib), a common irregular heartbeat that can significantly raise a person’s risk of stroke if it’s not treated though her team looked at about 5,000 people with a-fib who’d also undergone the heart bypass or aortic valve replacement surgery at one of the nearly three dozen Michigan hospitals between 2014 and 2022.
Men vs. Women in Heart Surgery
Even though cardiology guidelines recommend that a-fib be repaired during cardiac surgery, this only happened when 59 percent of the time for female patients versus 67 percent of the time for males, the study found.
Put another way, that means that women are nearly 26 percent less likely than men to get this “ Secondary condition” almost fixed during cardiac surgery.
Noted Study by the senior author Dr. Robert Hawkins said that fixing a-fib during cardiac surgeries does not add any risk to the surgery though Mr. Hawkins is also a cardiac surgeon at the UM Health Frankel Cardiovascular Center.
Focus on Making Heart Care Fair for Everyone
The main focus on a-fib is important stated by the Michigan team because the condition is even more dangerous for women than in men and in the second study the same team looked at nearly 400 people who received mitral valve surgeries between 2014 to 2023 and all of the patients were also seen to have moderate-to-serve leaking, or regurgitation, from their tricuspid valve at the time of their surgery.
Improving Heart Surgery for Women
“Cardiac surgery has pioneered the measurement and delivery of high-quality care,” Wagner said. “I think the next step is ensuring that such care is equitable. Our work highlights an opportunity to improve care for women undergoing heart surgery and maximize patients’ benefit when undergoing these high-risk surgeries.”