Ask Dr Miriam Q A

I’ve heard that women surgeons are better than male ones. Is this true?

I think what you’re referring to is a Canadian study where patients treated by a female surgeon were matched to patients who had the same operation by a male and outcomes between the two groups were compared.

The results, which I have to confess I found surprising but nonetheless very reassuring, showed that patients treated by female surgeons had a significantly lower mortality than those treated by male surgeons. Furthermore, there were similar outcomes between the genders like length of hospital stay, frequency of complications, and the need for readmission to hospital.

Types of surgery included orthopaedic, vascular, heart surgery and neurosurgery.

The surgeons were comparable in age and had spent roughly equivalent years in practice. I don’t think this study means that women make better surgeons than men. In all but the mortality rate, results were about equal between male and female surgeons.