Minor Complications Up for Black Patients After Weight-Loss Surgery

Safraz Hamid, M.D., from the Yale University School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, and colleagues identified patients who underwent primary laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass from 2016 to 2023. Yearly complication rates were compared for Black versus White patients.

A total of 1,106,419 patients were identified: 75.0 and 25.0 percent were White and Black, respectively. The researchers found that each year, Black patients demonstrated significantly higher rates of Clavien-Dindo (CD) category 1 complications (2016: 10.2 versus 7.6 percent; 2023: 15.0 versus 12.1 percent). No consistent differences were seen by race for CD2, CD3, CD4, or CD5 complications. Overall, readmission occurred in 5.2 and 3.5 percent of Black and White patients, respectively, in 2016, and in 3.7 and 2.8 percent, respectively, in 2023. Unplanned intervention rates also decreased over time (1.9 and 1.2 percent, respectively, for Black and White patients in 2016; 0.8 and 0.6 percent, respectively, in 2023); across all years, differences were significant. Emergency department visit rates increased for both groups (7.8 and 5.6 percent, respectively, for Black and White patients in 2016; 11.0 and 8.3 percent, respectively, in 2023); across all years, differences were significant.

“We were surprised the minor complication rate increased year after year and that racial disparities persisted,” Hamid said in a statement. “More work is needed to identify what’s causing the uptick and how it can be reversed.”