Youssef, Mohanad R.

Perioperative health inequities remain a critical issue, contributing to unequal patient outcomes and financial costs despite increasing awareness and efforts to address these disparities. This systematic review evaluated anesthesiology literature from 2010 to 2023 on perioperative health care disparities related to race, ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. The review aimed to identify gaps and propose research and opportunities for intervention. A comprehensive literature search was conducted using PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science, with studies included if they focused on perioperative disparities in the United States, were published in anesthesiology journals, and met criteria for methodological rigor. The review was registered with International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO); data extraction followed Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and study quality was assessed with the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Out of 1050 abstracts screened, 116 articles were reviewed for full text, with 59 studies meeting inclusion criteria. Included studies comprised retrospective cohort studies, cross-sectional analyses, a case-control study, and a randomized controlled trial, covering various surgical procedures and sample sizes from 100 to over 21 million patients. Disparities were noted in peripartum management (n = 14), mortality (n = 12), complications (n = 8), regional anesthesia use (n = 6), and pain management (n = 3), with evidence of poorer outcomes in Black and Hispanic women, older adolescents, and patients who were uninsured or on Medicaid. This review highlights the persistence of significant perioperative disparities and identifies gaps, such as limited exploration of the causes of these disparities, limited examination of disparities during the preoperative and intraoperative period, and few interventions to address these identified disparities. Reducing these disparities requires stakeholder engagement, multifaceted approaches, culturally agile training for health care teams, enhanced decision support tools, and a more diverse health care workforce. Continued research and targeted interventions at individual, community, and societal levels are essential for improving perioperative outcomes.

Background: Disparities in postoperative nausea and vomiting and its prophylaxis may exist based on race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status. The objective was to evaluate whether patients from racial and ethnic minority groups and patients from lower socioeconomic status backgrounds received less appropriate postoperative nausea and vomiting prophylaxis and experienced higher rates of postoperative and postdischarge nausea and vomiting. Methods: This retrospective cohort study included 23,333 adults who underwent major surgeries (total knee arthroplasty, cholecystectomy, hysterectomy, and prostatectomy) from 2017 to 2022 in a single, multistate hospital system. Outcomes included prophylactic antiemetic administration according to consensus guidelines, as well as the occurrence of postoperative and postdischarge nausea and vomiting, with predictors being patient race and ethnicity, payor type, and community-level socioeconomic status. Results: About 45% (n = 10,407) of patients received guideline-recommended postoperative nausea and vomiting prophylaxis. Regression models showed statistically significant differences in appropriate postoperative nausea and vomiting prophylaxis by race and ethnicity, as well as community-level socioeconomic status, with Black (odds ratio, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.63 to 0.92) and Hispanic (odds ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.70 to 0.96) patients having lower odds of receiving appropriate antiemetic prophylaxis compared to non-Hispanic White patients. Approximately 11% of patients (n = 2,522) experienced postoperative nausea and vomiting in the postanesthesia care unit, and about 19.5% of patients (n = 4,540) experienced postdischarge nausea and vomiting. No significant differences in postoperative nausea and vomiting were observed in the postanesthesia care unit among different groups; however, Black, Hispanic, other races and ethnicities, and patients with Medicaid had higher odds of postdischarge nausea and vomiting. Conclusions: The study identified differences in appropriate postoperative nausea and vomiting prophylaxis by race and ethnicity, as well as community-level socioeconomic status. There were no differences in postoperative nausea and vomiting by the predictors, but there were higher odds of postdischarge nausea and vomiting by race and ethnicity and payor. This study underscores the importance of data stratification in quality measures to identify disparities in perioperative care; it can lead to changes in perioperative anesthetic management. Further research should explore these associations in a broader cohort and address potential confounding sources.