Author(s)

Mushtaq AlAssaf¹, Michael Kolbeck², Wolfgang Honle¹, Alexander Schuh^2*

¹Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, Neumarkt Clinic, Neumarkt, Germany.
²Research Unit Orthopaedics and General Surgery, Neumarkt Clinic, Neumarkt,Germany.

Introduction: A large proportion of patients who undergo total hip replacement (THR) are obese. Aim of the present study is to investigate the influence of Body Mass Index (BMI) on compli-cations following THR in a single surgeon in the short term follow-up. Material and method: This study was based on the retrospective review of charts and BMIs from 171 patients who had undergone THR between April 2005 and March 2006 at our hospital. All operations were per-formed by a single surgeon. All patients were followed up 6 weeks after operation. Results: 27 / 171 patients (15.8%) were found to have com-plications. Systemic minor complications in-cluded arrythmia in 1 case, urinary tract infec-tion in two cases, ileus in two cases, renal in-sufficiency in 3 cases, confusion in 2 cases and anaemia in 14 cases (8.2%) requiring blood tr- ansfusion. There was one case of pulmonary embolism as a major systemic complication. Local minor complications included one single dislocation and 1 superficial wound infection. Body mass index ranged from 20.8 to 46.7 with a mean of 28.6. Hospital length of stay ranged from 10 to 42 days with a mean of 13. The leng- th of operation time between obese and non- obese patients varied significantly in our study. There was no increased risk for complications and length of hospital stay. Discussion: We can conclude that there are no economic or medical reasons for excluding obese patients from THR as there is no increased risk for complications and length of hospital stay.

Total Hip Replacement, Complication, Obesity, BMI, Bleeding

AlAssaf, M. , Kolbeck, M. , Honle, W. and Schuh, A. (2010) Is overweight or obesity a perioperative risk factor in total hip replacement?. Health, 2, 157-161. doi: 10.4236/health.2010.22023.