Straightfromthedoc: Risk of Post-Operative Complications, Higher in Obese Patients:
Morbidly obese patients had a death rate nearly twice as high as that of all other patients, had higher rate of cardiac arrest and have significantly higher risk of complications following surgery, including heart attack, wound infection, nerve injury and urinary tract infection.
Such were the findings of a new study of a research team at the University of Michigan Health System.
Bamgbade and the other researchers found much higher rates of the following complications in obese patients: heart attack, with obese patients experiencing five times the rate of attack than non-obese patients (0.5 percent versus 0.1 percent); wound infection, with a 1.7-times higher rate (6 percent versus 3.5 percent); peripheral nerve injury, with a four-times higher rate (0.4 percent versus 0.1 percent); and urinary tract infection, with a 1.5-times higher rate (3.9 percent versus 2.6 percent).
This is another study that confirms that obese patients are at increased risk during surgery. I think minimally invasive and robotic surgery has the greatest benefit on obese patients.