Night surgery patients twice as likely to die

PATIENTS operated on at night are more than twice as likely to die as those who undergo surgery in the daytime, according to new research.

The results of the five-year study also show that patients operated on later in the working day or in the early evening are also at higher risk of dying.

The findings, presented at the World Congress of Anaesthesiologists in Hong Kong, suggests that people who undergo surgery during the night were 2.17 times more likely to die as patients operated on during regular working hours.

Post-operation mortality risk factors have been extensively studied before. Previously identified risk factors include the patient’s age and emergency status.

But the researchers said that previous studies analysing the time of surgery and the post-op risk of dying have had “ambiguous” results.

The aim of the new study was to investigate any link between post-op mortality and the time of day that surgery took place at the Jewish General Hospital in Montreal, Canada.

A retrospective review of post-op mortality was conducted at the teaching hospital.

Study co-author Dr Ning Nan Wang, of McGill University Health Centre in Canada, said: “This study demonstrates that late day and night emergency surgery are associated with higher mortality. Post-operative 30-day in-hospital mortality rate should include start time of anaesthesia, along with other known variables, as a risk factor.”