Early clinical outcomes in men and women undergoing proximal thoracic aortic surgery: A Swedish population-based cohort study

Objective: The study objective was to investigate the association between female sex and 30-day mortality and postoperative complications in patients undergoing scheduled proximal thoracic aortic surgery in Sweden.

Methods: In a nationwide population-based cohort study, all patients who underwent scheduled proximal thoracic aortic surgery in Sweden between 2016 and 2020 were included. The primary outcome measure was 30-day mortality. Secondary outcome measures included a combined end point including 30-day all-cause mortality, postoperative new-onset dialysis, perioperative stroke, or a prolonged need of postoperative ventilation (>48 hours). Logistic regression models and propensity score matching were used to estimate the association between female sex and primary and secondary outcomes adjusted for differences in baseline characteristics.

Results: A total of 2000 patients (29% women) were analyzed. The crude 30-day all-cause mortality rate was higher in women compared with men (3.1% vs 1.4%, P < .001). Women were older at the time of surgery (65.6 vs 60.2 years, P < .001) and had more comorbidities and a larger maximum indexed aortic diameter (cm/m body height) at the time of surgery (3.4 ± 0.56 vs 3.0 ± 0.48, P < .001). The adjusted risk for 30-day mortality for women compared with men was not significant (odds ratio, 1.41; 95% CI, 0.70-2.83), and neither was the secondary composite end point (odds ratio, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.62-1.27). The propensity score-matched analysis showed similar results.

Conclusions: Women who underwent proximal thoracic aortic surgery had a 2-fold higher unadjusted 30-day mortality risk, but the mortality risk was not significantly higher when age and comorbidities was taken into consideration.