Background: Post-medical procedure complications are a critical area of healthcare, often resulting from infections, device failures, or unforeseen physiological responses. These events, while rare, can have significant impacts on patient safety and outcomes, even leading to mortality. Robust preventive measures and post-procedure monitoring are thus necessitated. This study analyzed trends and disparities in mortality rates due to post medical procedure complications among different demographics and geographical regions from 1999 to 2020 among patients aged 15 and older.
Methods: Analysis of Post Medical Procedure-related deaths in the US from 1999-2020 was conducted using death certificate data from the CDC WONDER database, utilizing the ICD-10 code Y-84. Age-adjusted mortality rates (AAMR) per 100,000 population were extracted, and trends were analyzed using Joinpoint regression to calculate the Average Annual Percent Change (AAPC) with p value for statistical significance. Data were stratified using year, gender, race/ethnicity and geographical regions.
Results: Post Medical Procedure-related Mortality accounted for 104,962 deaths in the USA in the last 20years. The AAMR exhibited an increasing trend from 1999 (2.20) to 2020 (3.18) with a significant AAPC (1.90, p< 0.01). AAMR for Medical Procedure-related Mortality was 2.21 in males and 1.54 in females. An increase of AAMR in both genders occurred with a greater increase in male population (AAPC; F: 1.06, M: 2.52). Blacks had the highest AAMR (3.07), and Asian or Pacific Islander with the lowest (1.36). Over the study period, Hispanic or Latino had the highest AAPC (3.84, p< 0.01). Number of deaths was highest in medical facilities (78,068, 74.4%), followed by Decedents home (13,397, 12.8%). Regional stratification shows West had the highest AAMR (1.99) while Northeast had the lowest AAMR (1.48). Significant increase of AAMR was seen in all regions with the highest in West (AAPC: 2.97, p< 0.01). Urbanization-wise, nonmetropolitan areas had a higher AAMR (1.96) than metropolitan areas (1.79). States in the top 90th percentile included: District of Columbia (3.44), Washington (2.84), Vermont (2.80), North Dakota (2.59), and Iowa (2.56).
Conclusions: Over the past two decades, post medical procedure-related mortality in the USA has increased significantly. Higher mortality rates were observed in males, Black individuals, and nonmetropolitan areas, with the West showing the greatest regional increase. These findings highlight the demographic disparities, need for improved procedural safety and targeted interventions in high-risk populations.
