Obese Patients Have Worse Hip Arthroplasty Outcomes

THURSDAY, May 15 (HealthDay News) -- Body mass index has an impact on the outcome of revision total hip arthroplasty, with obese patients faring the worst, researchers report in the May 15 issue of Arthritis Care & Research.

Anne Lubbeke, M.D., of Geneva University Hospital in Switzerland, and colleagues conducted a study of 52 obese and 152 non-obese patients who underwent revision total hip arthroplasty and compared incidence rates, rate ratios and hazard ratios of patients classified into four body mass index (BMI) categories: less than 25, 25 to 29.9, 30 to 34.9, and 35 and above.

There was a small increase in complications between normal weight and overweight patients at 1.8 cases per 100 person-years and 3.4 cases per 100 person-years, respectively, but the rate was 10.3/100 person-years for those with a BMI of 30 to 34.9 and 17.9/100 person-years for those with a BMI of 35 or above. Obese patients were 4.1 times more likely than non-obese patients to have a surgical site infection and 3.5 times more likely to have a dislocation, the investigators found.

"Revision total hip arthroplasty is a technically challenging intervention, particularly in obese patients, probably because of more difficult anatomical conditions," the authors write. "Surgeons, patients and referring physicians should be aware of an increased risk of adverse events in this patient group."

Abstract
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