LAUSR

The potential influence of cognitive biases on clinical decision-making has been associated with diagnostic inaccuracies, as well as therapeutic errors. 2 Olenski et al. reported left-digit bias in clinical decision-making among patients undergoing coronary artery bypass graft surgery. Left-digit bias is the tendency to categorize continuous variables based on the left-most numeric digit. In the medical setting, left-digit bias in relation to the numeric age of a patient may influence a physician to perceive a patient who is 70 years old as being more at risk than a patient who is 69 years old. We sought to characterize the role of left-digit bias in the management of older patients with cholecystitis. In particular, we assessed whether left-digit bias influenced surgical management of Medicare beneficiaries with cholecystitis.