Is Overweight Or Obesity a Perioperative Risk Factor in Total Hip Replacement?(Report‪)‬

1. INTRODUCTION A large proportion of patients who undergo total hip re placement (THR) are obese [17,18]. There has been much concern that obesity is associated with anaesthetic and operative complications after THR. Obese patients have a higher risk of adverse cardiovascular and respiratory events and obesity is an independent risk factor for the development of type II diabetes mellitus, a condition that carries an increased risk of post-operative morbidity. Other studies have demonstrated an increased risk of venous thromboembolic disease following joint replacement surgery in the obese. There is a strong association between obesity and prolonged wound drainage post-operatively which, in turn, is associated with a higher rate of wound infection and blood loss [1,4,20]. Namba et al. [15] concluded that obese patients have a 4.2 times higher risk of post-operative infection following THR. Furthermore, obesity has a bearing on health economics, with obese patients having an increased length of hospital stay compared with the general population [3,12]. Recently a weak correlation BMI and the complication rate in THR has been published by Patel A et al. [17]. He stated that orthopaedic surgeons should be aware of the slightly higher risk in THR in such patients. On the other hand several authors found no increased post-operative complications rate in obese patients undergoing THR [2,9,11,19]. Aim of this study was to investigate the influence of BMI on complications following THR in a single surgeon.