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Minimally invasive lumbar discectomy may be safe in obese patients
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SAN DIEGO — The differences in outcomes for obese and non-obese patients undergoing minimally invasive lumbar discectomies are not statistically significant, a speaker said at the International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery Annual Meeting, here.
According to Kern Singh, MD, obese patients he and his colleagues studied experienced greater blood loss on average and had higher operative times than their non-obese counterparts who underwent the same procedure. However, neither of these factors was statistically significantly different between the two patient groups, nor did they influence outcomes.
Singh said all patients had similar outcomes at the final follow-up.
Kern Singh
“Minimally invasive surgical techniques may be a safe and effective approach for lumbar discectomy in obese patients,” Singh, who is a Spine Surgery Today Editorial Board member, said. A total of 250 patients underwent lumbar discectomy and 103 of the patients or 41.2% were classified as obese. Obesity was defined as a BMI greater than 30 for this study.
Obesity did not affect reoperation rates, revision rates, length of stay, reherniation rates or complications rates, Singh noted.
At 6 weeks follow-up, obese patients had higher VAS scores compared with non-obese patients in the study but this difference was not sustained through final follow-up. – by Robert Linnehan
Reference:
Marquez-Lara A, et al. Paper #289. Presented at: International Society for the Advancement of Spine Surgery Annual Meeting; April 15-17, 2015; San Diego.
Disclosure: Singh reports he is a consultant for DePuy; receives royalties from Thieme, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Zimmer and Pioneer Surgical; and is on the board for Vital 5 and Avaz Surgical.