Article on Obesity and Surgery in General

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I found the attached article today on Yahoo Health and thought I'd

pass it on to you:

Report: Obese People Do OK After Surgery

Health - Reuters to My Yahoo!

By Griffiths

LONDON (Reuters Health) - Obesity alone does not seem to put a person

at risk of post-operative complications -- suggesting that heavy

patients should not be excluded from surgery or forced to lose weight

in advance, Swiss researchers reported Friday.

Given the epidemic of obesity in industrialized countries, the

findings could be relevant to a sizable population. About 20 percent

of Americans are obese now, a figure experts estimate could rise to

40 percent by 2025.

" Obesity causes substantial levels of illness and death in the

general population, but forcing obese people to lose weight before

surgery or withholding surgery is simply not supported by our

findings, " said study author Dr. Pierre-Alain Clavien.

" The regressive attitude toward general surgery in obese patients is

no longer justified. "

Clavien and colleagues from University Hospital Zurich carried out a

10-year study of more than 6,300 patients undergoing general elective

surgery.

They divided patients into non-obese and obese groups; the obese

group was subdivided into mildly and severely obese.

Thirteen percent of patients were obese, of whom nine percent were

mildly obese and four percent severely so, according to the report in

the June 14th issue of The Lancet.

Post-operative complication rates were essentially the same in mildly

obese, severely obese and non-obese groups -- 15 to 16 percent in all

three groups.

The only exception was in the rates of wound infection in obese and

non-obese patients, which were four percent and three percent,

respectively. Operation time and the need for blood transfusions did

not differ between obese and non-obese groups, the authors note.

" Around 300,000 people die each year in the U.S. because of obesity, "

Clavien said. " Because of the high rate of associated illnesses, it

is widely assumed that obesity is a major risk factor for post-

surgical complications. "

" Our study shows that, with a single exception, this is simply not

the case. "

SOURCE: The Lancet 2003:361;2032-2035.