Background: Compared to their white peers, black children are more likely to experience serious respiratory complications in the perioperative period. Whether a racial difference exists in the occurrence of late postoperative respiratory complications is largely unknown. Here, we evaluated a multi-institutional cohort of children who underwent various elective otolaryngology procedures to examine the racial differences in major postoperative pulmonary complications.
Methods: We performed a retrospective analysis of elective inpatient otolaryngology cases from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (2012-2018). We used propensity score matching of black to white patients to compare the risk of postoperative pulmonary complications, defined as the occurrence of either pneumonia, unplanned reintubation, or prolonged postoperative mechanical ventilation.
Results: The matched cohort was comprised of 4786 black and white patients (2 393 of each race). Black children were more likely to develop postoperative pulmonary complications compared to white peers (29.3% vs. 24.2%; odds ratio: 1.38; 95% confidence interval: 1.20, 1.59; P-value < .001). Furthermore, black children were almost two times more likely to require unplanned postoperative reintubation, relative to their white peers (2.6% vs. 1.3%; odds ratio: 2.07; 95% confidence interval: 1.33, 3.22; P-value < .001). Similarly, black children were estimated to have 37% relative greater odds of requiring prolonged mechanical ventilation (28.6% vs. 23.7%; 95% confidence interval: 1.19, 1.58; P-value < .001). Finally, being of black race conferred greater odds of requiring prolonged hospital length of stay, relative to being of white race (38.6% vs. 34.5%; odds ratio:1.24; 95% confidence interval: 1.09, 1.42; P-value = .004).
Conclusion: Black children undergoing elective otolaryngological surgery are more likely to develop major postoperative pulmonary complications.
Keywords: age; child; complications; otolaryngology; respiration.
© 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.