African American Patients Experience Worse Outcomes than Hispanic Patients Following Bariatric Surgery: an Analysis Using the MBSAQIP Data Registry

Obesity rates in Hispanics and African Americans (AAs) are higher than in Caucasians in the USA, yet the rate of metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) for weight loss remains lower for both Hispanics and AAs.

Patient demographics and outcomes of adult AA and Hispanic patients undergoing sleeve gastrectomy (SG) or Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) procedures were analyzed using the MBSAQIP dataset [2015–2018] using unmatched and propensity-matched data.

In total, 173,157 patients were included, of whom 98,185 were AA [56.7%] [21,163-RYGB; 77,022-SG] and 74,972 were Hispanic [43.3%] [20,282-RYGB; 54,690-SG]). Preoperatively, the AA cohort was older, had more females, and higher BMIs with higher rates of all tracked obesity-related medical conditions except for diabetes, venous stasis, and prior foregut surgery. Intra- and postoperatively, AAs were more likely to experience major complications including unplanned ICU admission, 30-day readmission/reintervention, and mortality. After propensity matching, the differences in ED visits, treatment for dehydration, 30-day readmission, 30-day intervention, and pulmonary embolism remained for both SG and RYGB cohorts. Progressive renal insufficiency and ventilator use lost statistical significance in both cohorts. Conversely, 30-day reoperation, postoperative ventilator requirement, unplanned intubation, unplanned ICU admission, and mortality lost significance in the RYGB cohort, but not SG patients.

Outcomes for AA patients were worse than for Hispanic patients, even after propensity matching. After matching, differences in major complications and mortality lost significance for RYGB, but not SG. These data suggest that outcomes for RYGB may be driven by the presence and severity of pre-existing patient-related factors.