Obese Patients At Higher Risk Of Adverse Events After Hip Reconstruction, Australia

Problem:

Obese and morbidly obese patients are at significantly greater risk of complications after a total hip reconstruction than non-obese patients, according to research published in the Medical Journal of Australia

Solutions:

1. Don't fix them until they lose the weight.
2. Make them pay out-of-pocket for complications.

Fixing these folks is a net negative proposition.

They found that the risk of complications in the first 12 months after THA increased by seven per cent for each unit increase in body mass index (BMI), after adjusting for age and sex, with morbidly obese patients having an almost sixfold higher complication rate than non-obese patients.

Prof Choong said that despite the significant reduction in pain and improvement in function reported in obese and morbidly obese patients, the study found that clinically significant weight loss in these patients after THA was uncommon.

At 12-month follow-up, only nine per cent of obese or morbidly obese patients had lost five per cent or more of their preoperative weight, and 25 per cent had in fact gained five per cent or more of their preoperative weight.

"Functional ability is only one of a number of factors that affect a person's willingness to participate in physical activity (and thus aid weight loss) after surgery," Prof Choong said.

Even when you fix them, they do not use their new hips for anything resembling meaningful change.

Crawling with old hips probably burns more Calories.