CHICAGO (Reuters) – people with a lower weight to the
normal have a 40 percent higher risk of dying in the
first month after surgery than patients with
overweight, according to research unveiled the
Monday.
The findings suggest that the body mass index, or
IMC, may be useful to predict which patients suffer from a
higher risk while they recover from the surgery, reported
researchers American in Archives of Surgery.
Previous studies that evaluated the role of BMI in the
surgery have had mixed results, said George Stukenborg of
The University of Virginia in Charlottesville, who participated
in the study.
“Low BMI patients have increased risk of death
“”
30 days after the surgery”, said Stukenborg in a
interview phone.
Researchers used data from nearly 190,000 patients
they underwent a series of surgeries in 183 hospitals
between 2005 and 2006.
The BMI is calculated by dividing weight in kilograms by the
height in meters squared. According to the Centers for
the Disease Control and prevention (CDC, for its acronym in
English) of United States, people with a BMI of 18.5 to
24.9 have normal weight; those with a BMI of 25 to 29.9
are overweight and those with a BMI of 30 or more are obese.
To search for a link between body weight and risk
death, classified patients into five groups or
quintiles: people with one BMI less than 23.1; people with a
BMI of 23.1 to less than 26.3; people with a BMI of 26.3 to
less than 29.7; people with a BMI of 29.7 below 35.3; and
people with a BMI of 35.3 or greater.
In total, 2.245 or 1.7 percent of the participants
the study died within 30 days of the surgery.
“We found that patients in the lowest quintile
“
were likely to 40 percent more death in
“
comparison with middle-ranking”, said Stukenborg,
people in the category of overweight with a BMI of 26.3
to 29.7.
Even when the researchers adjusted by the rate of
surgery and other risk factors, those with a BMI under
they still had one higher risk of dying during the first month
after surgery compared to patients of
surgery with greater weight.
Stukenborg said that it was not clear why. The study not
followed recent weight loss, so it could be due to
that people with lower BMI were more sick from a
start.
Anyway, Stukenborg said that doctors
should consider the BMI when plan surgeries for their
patients.
Being overweight or being obese leads to many others
risks, raising the chances of heart diseases
diabetes, some types of cancer, arthritis, and others
conditions.
Diseases related to obesity correspond to
almost 10 per cent of medical spending on United States, or
an estimated 147,000 million $ a year.
