Obesity and perioperative outcomes in older surgical patients undergoing elective spine and major arthroplasty surgery

Abstract Study objective To determine whether obesity status is associated with perioperative complications, discharge outcomes and hospital length of stay in older surgical patients. Design Secondary analysis of five independent study cohorts (N = 1262). Setting An academic medical center between 2001 and 2017 in the United States. Patients Patients aged 65 years or older who were scheduled to undergo elective spine, knee, or hip surgery with an expected hospital stay of at least 2 days. Measurements Body mass index (BMI) was stratified as nonobese (BMI ≤ 30 kg/m2), obesity class 1 (30 kg/m2 ≤ BMI  Main results Obesity status was not associated with intraoperative adverse events. However, obesity class 2–3 significantly increased the risk for postoperative complications (IRR 1.43, 95% CI 1.03–1.95, P = 0.03), hospital LOS (IRR 1.13, 95% CI 1.02–1.25, P = 0.02) and non-home discharge destination (OR 1.95, 95% CI 1.35–2.81, P  Conclusions Obesity class 2–3 status has prognostic value in predicting an increased incidence of postoperative complications, increased hospital LOS, and non-home discharge location. These results have important clinical implications for preoperative informed consent and provide areas to target for care improvement for the older obese individual.