Differences of the Postoperative Outcome for Carotid Surgery Patients Treated by Either Male or Female Surgeons

Data about physician gender having impact on the treatment quality of a patient first appeared in 1999, the publication being about patients with breast cancer. This discussion was resumed in 2016 when Y. Tsugawa et. al showed that female doctors have, in comparison to male doctors, better treatment results. Primary outcomes for the study were mortality and readmissions, which were lower if the treatment has been done by a female doctor. Until today, there are only a few reports about the role of physician gender, especially that of surgeons, in the treatment quality. Studies like the ones from Blohm et. al and Wallis et. al show that female surgeons have a better outcome and a lower mortality, 30 days after the surgery. Wallis et. al also showed that the correlation between male surgeons and female patients have the worst results\]. None of the studies that were written until today focussed on carotid surgery. Since 2012, in Germany, the surgical treatment of carotid stenosis has an established quality assurance, with specific documentation and a standard surgical course of action. This is why we consider that this surgery is especially suitable for comparison of results, depending on surgeon genders.