This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Obesity linked to higher risk for surgery following orthopedic polytrauma
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Patients who were obese experienced a higher risk of surgery following orthopedic polytrauma and also had longer hospital stays and greater treatment costs compared with non-obese patients, according to results of a recently published study.
“Overall, this study found an association between obesity and increased rates of lower-extremity injuries and orthopedic surgery,” Heather L. Licht, MD, an orthopedic surgeon and author of the study, said in a press release from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons. “Obese patients had higher total hospital charges, longer intensive care unit and total hospital stays, and decreased rate of discharge.”
She added, “Even when patients have the same severity of injuries, resource utilization is higher among patients with obesity compared to non-obese patients.”
Licht and colleagues identified 301 patients with polytrauma who had orthopedic injuries and were admitted to the intensive care unit at a level-1 trauma center from 2006 to 2011. Using routine thoracoabdominal CT scans to measure truncal adiposity volume, investigators classified patients with a BMI of less than 30 kg/m2 as non-obese and patients with a BMI of greater than 30 kg/m2 as obese.
Overall, 21.6% of patients were classified as obese. Researchers found obese patients frequently had lower-extremity injuries and experienced a higher rate of surgical intervention compared with non-obese patients. Results showed a longer intensive care unit length of stay and total length of stay among obese patients compared with non-obese patients, with means of 9.7 days vs. 7.2 days and 16.4 days vs. 12.4 days, respectively. However, non-obese patients had increased in-hospital mortality compared with obese patients.
In addition, researchers found hospital costs were higher among patients who were obese with a mean charge of approximately $234,863.58 compared with an approximate charge of $160,606.02 among non-obese patients. – by Casey Tingle
Disclosures: Licht reports no relevant financial disclosures. Please see the full study for a list of all other authors’ relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts