Table 2.

Sex differences in postoperative complications

Postoperative event	Female (%) N = 17545	Male (%) N = 16643	P value
Discharge or 30-day mortality	259 (1.5)	492 (3.0)	<0.001
Air leak with duration > 5 days	1387 (7.9)	1660 (10.0)	<0.001
Atelectasis requiring bronchoscopy	522 (3.0)	686 (4.1)	<0.001
Pneumonia	537 (3.1)	800 (4.8)	<0.001
Evidence of Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome	153 (0.9)	227 (1.4)	<0.001
Bronchopleural fistula	46 (0.3)	93 (0.6)	<0.001
Reintubation	512 (2.9)	742 (4.5)	<0.001
Pulmonary embolus or DVT requiring treatment	129 (0.7)	164 (1.0)	0.012
Initial ventilator support > 48 hours, tracheostomy, or other pulmonary event	948 (5.4)	1039 (6.2)	<0.001
Atrial arrhythmia requiring treatment	1571 (9.0)	2287 (13.7)	<0.001
Ventricular arrhythmia requiring treatment	105 (0.6)	157 (0.9)	<0.001
Myocardial infarct	44 (0.3)	94 (0.6)	<0.001
Other cardiovascular event	260 (1.5)	360 (2.2)	<0.001
Gastrointestinal complications	288 (1.6)	447 (2.7)	<0.001
Postoperative blood transfusion	965 (5.5)	1127 (6.8)	<0.001
Bleeding requiring reoperation	109 (0.6)	158 (0.9)	<0.001
Urinary tract infection	390 (2.2)	225 (1.4)	<0.001
Empyema requiring treatment	45 (0.3)	98 (0.6)	<0.001
Wound infection	59 (0.3)	81 (0.5)	0.030
Sepsis or other infection requiring treatment	163 (0.9)	254 (1.5)	<0.001
New central neurological event	90 (0.5)	112 (0.7)	0.045
Recurrent laryngeal nerve paresis or delirium tremens or other neurological event	341 (1.9)	494 (3.0)	<0.001
New renal failure requiring treatment or worsening renal function (> 2x preop value)	171 (1.0)	343 (2.1)	<0.001
Chylothorax requiring drainage or medical treatment only	64 (0.4)	52 (0.3)	0.41
Chylothorax requiring surgical intervention	40 (0.2)	053 (0.3)	0.11
Other events requiring medical treatment or other events requiring OR with general anesthesia or unexpected admission to ICU	758 (4.3)	1021 (6.1)	<0.001