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Aug. 30, 2006 - Over-60 surgeons aren't over the hill -- as long as they stay busy, a University of Michigan study shows.
As we age, we aren't as quick with our fingers, our eyes, or our minds as we used to be. If you're an agingaging athlete, this means your team could lose a game. But what if you're a surgeon?
Do aging surgeons lose more patients than surgeons in the prime of life? What about less-experienced surgeons?
To answer these questions, Jennifer F. Waljee, MD, MPH, and colleagues analyzed Medicare files on some 461,000 patients.
They looked at eight complicated, high-risk operations: heart bypass, aortic aneurism repair, heart valve replacement, cleaning plaque from a major artery, pancreas removal, esophagus removal, removing part of the lung, and bladder removal.
"Surgeon age over 60 years was not associated with operative for five of the eight procedures examined," Waljee and colleagues report.
For three operations -- pancreas removal, heart bypass, and arterial plaque cleaning -- the patients of older surgeons did die a bit more often.
But the size of that effect wasn't large. And it was largely limited to older doctors who did relatively few operations. Those who stayed busy were just as good as their younger peers.
Similarly, only under-40 surgeons who did relatively few operations lost more patients than their more experienced peers.
"This study's results should be very encouraging not only for patients but also for younger and older surgeons whose operative skills may previously have been the subject of scrutiny," Waljee said, in a news release.
Choosing a Surgeon
What does this mean to patients considering surgery? It's a bad idea to pick a surgeon based on her or his age, Waljee and colleagues say.
It's better to look at outcome data on a surgeon or hospital. This isn't always easy to find.
But you can look for a surgeon or hospital that does a lot of the kind of operation you need. And remember that it's always a good idea to check out a surgeon's local reputation.
Waljee and colleagues report their findings in the September issue of Annals of Surgery.
SOURCES: Waljee, J. Annals of Surgery, September 2006; vol 244: early online edition. News release, University of Michigan.