The Effect of Body Mass Index on Perioperative Outcomes After Major Surgery: Results from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS‐NSQIP) 2005–2011

The Effect of Body Mass Index on Perioperative Outcomes After Major Surgery: Results from the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS‐NSQIP) 2005–2011

World Journal of Surgery, June 2015

26059407

Akshay Sood, Firas Abdollah, Jesse D. Sammon, Kaustav Majumder, Marianne Schmid, James O. Peabody, Mark A. Preston, Adam S. Kibel, Mani Menon, Quoc‐Dien Trinh

Obesity is associated with poor surgical outcomes and disparity in access-to-care. There is a lack of quality data on the effect of body mass index (BMI) on perioperative outcomes. Accordingly, we sought to determine the procedure specific, independent-effect of BMI on 30-day perioperative outcomes in patients undergoing major surgery. Participants included individuals undergoing one of 16 major surgery (cardiovascular, orthopedic, oncologic; n = 141,802) recorded in the ACS-NSQIP (2005-2011). Outcomes evaluated included complications, blood transfusion, length-of-stay (LOS), re-intervention, readmission, and perioperative mortality. Multivariable-regression models assessed the independent-effect of BMI on outcomes. Nearly, 74  % of patients had a BMI disturbance; the majority being overweight (35.3  %) or obese (29.8  %). Morbidly obese patients constituted a small but significant proportion of the patients (5.7 %; n = 8067). In adjusted-analyses, morbidly obese patients had significantly increased odds of wound complications in 15 of the examined procedures, of renal complications after 6-procedures, of thromboembolism after 5-procedures, of pulmonary, septic and UTI complications after 2-procedures, and of cardiovascular complications after CABG. Conversely, obese/overweight patients, except for increased odds of wound complications after select procedures, had significantly decreased odds of perioperative mortality, prolonged-LOS and blood transfusion relative to normal BMI patients after 4, 8, and 9 of the examined procedures. The prevalence of BMI derangements in surgical patients is high. The effect of BMI on outcomes is procedure specific. Patients with BMI between 18.5 and 40-kg/m(2) at time of surgery fare equally well with regard to complications and mortality. However, morbidly obese patients are at-risk for postsurgical complications and targeted preoperative-optimization may improve outcomes and attenuate disparity in access-to-care.