According to a recent study in Japan, surgical complications and mortality rates for male and female surgeons are the same, so there is no difference between them.
Although female doctors took over more difficult cases and high-risk patients, they found that the situation was the same for men and women.
Although they are not different in terms of their abilities, the authors of the study published in the BMJ pointed out that women are the minority in this field and encourage more opportunities for them.
On the plus side, the number of female doctors has increased over the past few years.
In Canada, only 28% of surgeons are female (2019), 22% in the United States (2019), and 33% in the United Kingdom (2017). In Japan, the proportion of female doctors is even lower, with only 22% of female doctors and 5.9% of surgeons.
Previous studies in Canada and the United States have shown that female doctors and surgeons are comparable to their male counterparts, or more proficient than their male counterparts.
researchers analyzed data from Japan's National Clinical Database (NCD) to compare the surgical results of two surgeons from 2013 to 2017. The complete data included 149,193 distal gastrectomy, 63,417 gastrectomy, and 81,593 low anterior resections.
Unfortunately, although female surgeons have the most of these surgeries, only 5% of the surgeries are done by women.
study also found that hospitals are more inclined to assign high-risk patients, such as those with more severe illness and malnutrition, to women.
anyway, no difference was found between the two. The
research team concluded that women may not have enough opportunities and men were treated preferentially during internships.
The author acknowledged that the project was observational and had no definite conclusions.
