Journal of clinical anesthesia
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With increasing improvement in perioperative care, post-surgical complication and mortality rates have continued to decline in the United States. Nonetheless, not all racial groups have benefitted equally from this transformative improvement in postoperative outcomes. We tested the hypothesis that among a cohort of "sick" (ASA physical status 4 or 5) Black and White children, there would be no systematic difference in the incidence of postoperative morbidity and mortality. ⋯ In this cohort of children with high ASA physical status, Black children compared to their White peers experienced significantly higher rates of 30-day postoperative morbidity and mortality. These findings suggest that racial differences in postoperative outcomes among the sickest pediatric surgical patients may not be entirely explained by preoperative health status.