NATIONAL HARBOR, MD. – Race and ethnicity still appear to play a role in determining which patients receive a minimally invasive hysterectomy, and which undergo a traditional abdominal procedure.
Black, Hispanic, and Asian women were up to 50% less likely to have either a laparoscopic or vaginal hysterectomy, compared with whites, Dr. Katharine Esselen reported at the AAGL global congress.
The findings remained statistically significant even after Dr. Esselen and her colleagues controlled for a variety of patient, financial, and hospital characteristics.
"Racial disparities exist in the mode of hysterectomy in endometrial and cervical cancer, and must be further investigated to better understand the contributing factors so that they may be eradicated," said Dr. Esselen, a clinical fellow in gynecologic oncology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston.
The researchers extracted their data from the 2009 National Inpatient Sample. It included 1,000 hospitals and more than 8 million patient stays – representing 20% of the discharges in the country for that year.
In 2009, there were 64,410 hysterectomies performed for gynecologic malignancy. More than half (54%) were for endometrial cancer, followed by cervical cancer (23%), and ovarian cancer (19%). Other cancers made up the remainder.
The majority of surgeries in all these categories were abdominal: 72% of the endometrial cases, 56% of the cervical cases, and 95% of the ovarian cases. Laparoscopic hysterectomy was the surgical mode in 26% of endometrial cases, 23% of cervical cases, and 4% of ovarian cases. Vaginal hysterectomies were performed for 2% of endometrial cases, 21% of vaginal cases, and just 1% of ovarian cases.
A multivariate regression analysis controlled for demographic factors (age, race/ethnicity, insurance); patient factors (cancer diagnosis, fibroids, endometriosis, prolapse, menstrual disorders, age, severity of comorbidities, obesity); and hospital factors (urban/rural, teaching status, size, and region of country).
After adjustment for all of these factors, black women were 43% less likely to have a minimally invasive hysterectomy for endometrial cancer than were white women – a significant difference. Hispanic and Asian women were also significantly less likely to have minimally invasive surgery (MIS), with odds ratios of 0.61 and 0.63, respectively. Native American women, however, were more than five times as likely to have such a procedure compared with white women (OR, 5.26).
Insurance also played a role, Dr. Esselen said. Those with Medicaid were significantly less likely to have a minimally invasive procedure (OR, 0.64) than were those with private insurance.
The findings were similar for ovarian cancer. Black and Asian women were significantly less likely to have MIS than were whites (OR, 0.41 and 0.44, respectively). There was no significant difference seen for Hispanic women.
Medical comorbidities were significantly related to the chance of MIS as well. MIS was significantly less likely in women with moderate loss of function due to comorbid conditions (endometrial OR, 0.47; cervical OR, 0.62; ovarian OR, 0.38). Those with major to extreme loss of function had an even smaller chance (endometrial OR, 0.23; cervical OR, 0.21; ovarian OR, 0.10). The P values on these were all less than .0001.
Obesity only affected MIS odds in endometrial cancer, significantly increasing the chance of such a procedure (OR, 1.27).
Dr. Esselen said she had no financial disclosures.