Association of Language Barriers With Perioperative and Surgical Outcomes: A Systematic Review.

Importance: English language proficiency has been reported to correlate with disparities in health outcomes. Therefore, it is important to identify and describe the association of language barriers with perioperative care and surgical outcomes to inform efforts aimed at reducing health care disparities.

Objective: To examine whether limited English proficiency compared with English proficiency in adult patients is associated with differences in perioperative care and surgical outcomes.