Relationship Between Body Fat and Morbidity and Mortality in Cardiac Surgery

espanolIntroduccion: Existe un efecto potencialmente protector de la obesidad cuando coexiste con la enfermedad cardiovascular, conocido como “paradoja de la obesidad”. Es posible que se deba a que las medidas antropometricas no sean un marcador fidedigno de la grasa corporal. En este estudio proponemos estimar la grasa corporal con metodos no invasivos y estudiar su relacion con la morbimortalidad en cirugia cardiaca. Metodos: Llevamos a cabo un estudio prospectivo y observacional en pacientes adultos sometidos a cirugia cardiaca. Analizamos variables demograficas, antropometricas y clinicas junto con la estimacion de la composicion corporal a traves de la impedancia bioelectrica, para relacionarlas con los dias de internacion y eventos adversos luego de la cirugia cardiaca. Resultados y conclusion: En el analisis de 98 pacientes, encontramos una relacion directa entre el porcentaje de grasa corporal y los dias de internacion, independiente de la edad, el sexo, el indice de masa corporal (IMC) y el riesgo prequirurgico (coeficiente de Pearson de 0.27, p = 0.021). Ademas, los pacientes que presentaron mediastinitis tuvieron una grasa corporal significativamente mayor (31.55 ± 0.64% contra 27.13 ± 7.9%, p EnglishIntroduction: There is a potentially protective effect of obesity when it coexists with cardiovascular disease, known as the“obesity paradox.” It could be explained by the fact that anthropometric measurements are not a reliable marker of bodyfat. In this study we propose to estimate body fat with a non-invasive method and study its relationship with morbidity andmortality in cardiac surgery.Methods: We conducted a prospective and observational study in adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery. We analyzed demographic,anthropometric and clinical variables along with the estimation of body composition using bioelectric impedance,to study their association to hospitalization days and adverse events after cardiac surgery.Results: In the analysis of 98 patients, we found a direct relationship between the percentage of body fat and the length ofhospital stay, independent of age, sex, body mass index (BMI) and surgical risk (coefficient of 0.27, p = 0.021). In addition,patients who had mediastinitis showed a significantly higher body fat (31.55 ± 0.64% versus 27.13 ± 7.9%, p