A study evaluating the impact of high obesity on lumbar spinal condition treatment was published in the recent edition of Spine.
The study was conducted as part of the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial and included obese patients, highly obese patients and nonobese patients. The researchers found:
1. Highly obese patients had increase comorbidities while baseline Short Form-36 physical functional scores were lowest among these patients.
2. The greatest treatment effect for patients with degenerative spondylolisthesis in the highly obese group was in primary outcome measures, attributable to the significantly poorer nonoperative outcomes.
3. Highly obese patients had the highest operative times and wound infection rates among the three groups of patients who underwent treatment for degenerative spondylolisthesis.
4. Highly obese patients with intervertebral disc herniation had less improvement postoperatively than the obese and nonobese patients. But nonoperative treatment was even worse for highly obese patients, with greater treatment effect in nearly all measures.
5. The operative time for intervertebral disc herniation patients was greatest among the highly obese patients. Both obese cohorts had greater blood loss and hospital length-of-stays.