Absence of Gender Disparity in Thirty-Day Morbidity and Mortality After Supratentorial Brain Tumor Resection.

BACKGROUND

Gender is a complex social determinant of health affected by both social and biological factors. There is a need to investigate the effect of gender on outcomes, in the absence of confounding characteristics, to mitigate disparities in care.

METHODS

A total of 1970 consecutive patients at a university health system undergoing nonmeningioma supratentorial brain tumor resection over a 6-year period (June 9, 2013-April 26, 2019) were analyzed retrospectively. Coarsened exact matching was used to match patients on demographic factors including history of previous surgery, median household income, and race. Outcomes assessed included readmission, emergency department visit, unplanned reoperation, and mortality within 30 days of surgery. Regression analysis was performed among a prematched population and between the matched cohorts with significance set at a P value <0.05.

RESULTS

Within the matched population, no significant difference was observed between male and female patients in any of the recorded outcomes after nonmeningioma supratentorial brain tumor resection, including readmission, emergency department evaluation, unplanned reoperation, and mortality within 30 days of resection (P = 0.28-0.85). Similarly, no significant difference was found in any of the morbidity and mortality outcomes in the prematched regression analysis (P = 0.10-0.70).

CONCLUSIONS

When gender is isolated from race, household economics, and other key factors, it does not seem to independently predict morbidity or mortality in the short-term postoperative window after supratentorial brain tumor resection. Future studies should investigate the impact of gender in longer follow-up and its interrelation with other social determinants of health contributing to outcome disparity.