A population-level analysis of abdominal wall reconstruction by component separation in the morbidly obese patient: Can it be performed safely?

Abstract

Morbid obesity is increasing at an alarming rate and a significant portion of patients presenting for complex abdominal wall reconstruction (AWR) and component separation fall into this category, creating added medical and surgical challenges to an already difficult operation. The goal of this study was to utilise the Nationwide 2005–2010 American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement database (ACS-NSQIP) to perform a population level analysis of the role of morbid obesity on 30-day perioperative morbidity with the hope of improving patient care, counselling and risk stratification. Morbidly obese patients (BMI > 40 kg/m²) were compared to non-obese patients (BMI < 30 kg/m²). Outcome variables assessed included major surgical complications, major medical complications, major renal complications, major wound complications, return to OR (ROR), and venous thromboembolism (VTE). Significant variables in a univariate analysis were included in a multivariate logistic regression controlling for patient characteristics (p < 0.05). In total, 1695 patients undergoing AWR were identified in the ACS-NSQIP database. Of these, 614 patients were non-obese (average BMI = 25.7 ± 3.0 kg/m²) and 314 were morbidly obese (average BMI = 45.9 ± 5.8 kg/m²). Multivariate analyses determined that morbid obesity did not significantly contribute to major surgical, medical, renal or wound complications. However, it was significantly associated with ROR (OR = 2.8, p < 0.001) and VTE (OR = 5.2, p = 0.04). Morbid obesity is an independent risk factor for ROR and VTE related complications, in the 30 day post-operative period. Additional perioperative care is warranted to decrease such early re-operations and for preventable complications.

Key Words::

• Abdominal wall reconstruction
• component separation
• American College of Surgeons–National Surgical Quality Improvement
• morbidly obese
• ventral hernia
• incisional hernia

Acknowledgements

Ethical Approval: De-identified patient information is freely available to all institutional members who comply with the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) Data Use Agreement. The Data Use Agreement implements the protections afforded by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Disclaimer: The ACS-NSQIP and the hospitals participating in the ACS-NSQIP are the source of the data used herein; they have not verified and are not responsible for the statistical validity of the data analysis or the conclusions derived by the authors of this study. IRB: IRB exemption was approved by our institution. Financial Support: This particular research received no internal or external grant funding.