STUDY FINDS STRIKING GENDER DIFFERENCES IN COSTS OF
HEART SURGERY
Manuel L. Fontes, M.D. ASA ANNUAL MEETING
FOR RELEASE: October 19, 1998
CONTACT: Denise M. Jones Monday, Philip S. Weintraub, (847) 825-5586
Oct. 17-21 (407) 248-5010
ORLANDO -- The cost of coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG) is 20 percent higher for women than men, according to studies performed by Yale University researchers and reported at the American Society of Anesthesiologists annual meeting.
A study of 550 patients undergoing CABG surgery in 1997 found that women spend significantly more time on mechanical ventilation and in the hospital after surgery, even though men experience more complications during their procedures.
The amount of time of mechanical ventilation for women in the study was 19.8 hours versus 12.9 hours for the men while the time spent in the hospital following surgery was 7.3 days for the women but only 5.7 days for the men.
The study found no significant differences between men and women in the severity of heart disease before surgery, and the large cost gaps between men and women persisted even after adjusting for any differences in age and risk factors, such as the presence of other serious illnesses, anesthesiologist Manuel L. Fontes, M.D., said.
"What we need to know is why there is such a significant difference in cost between men and women," Dr. Fontes said.
Unknown physiological differences between men and women may explain the gender-related cost differences. "Perhaps female patients spend more time on mechanical ventilation because they metabolize anesthetic drugs slower than men do," he said. "If that is true, we need to question the current dosing of drugs based only on body weight, and we may need to select potent drugs that are quickly metabolized regardless of gender differences," he said. Part of the answer may lie in differences in support systems between men and women, Dr. Fontes said. "Women tend to outlive men, so there are many more single older women than single older men," he said. "Perhaps men are discharged earlier because they are more likely to have someone at home who can take care of them."
Further research is under way at Yale to study these support systems, Dr. Fontes said.
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