Obesity is linked to longer hospital stays and higher total knee replacement costs, a study revealed.
For the study, researchers examined BMI, comorbidities, complications, outcomes and cost of care of 8,129 patients who underwent 6,475 primary TKRs and 1,654 revision TKRs at major medical center between January 1, 2000 and September 30, 2008.
The study findings showed that the most common patient comorbidities were hypertension and diabetes.
The study pointed that every 5-unit increase in BMI beyond 30 kg/m² was associated with a mean hospital stay that was .11 days longer for patients who were getting primary TKR and .06 days longer for patients undergoing revision TKR. The observation was well founded for patients with and without comorbidities.
"The higher costs associated with obesity are believed to be largely due to managing comorbid medical conditions linked to obesity, such as diabetes," said lead study author Hilal Maradit-Kremers, MD, an associate professor of epidemiology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn, in the press release. And yet in this study, "even in the absence of comorbidities, patients with obesity had longer stays and higher hospital costs."
"The bottom line is that obesity is increasingly common among patients undergoing joint replacement, which creates a myriad of technical and medical challenges, and likely contributes to the financial burden of the surgery," said senior author David G. Lewallen, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon, also from Mayo Clinic, in the press release.
The study is published in the 'Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery(JBJS).'
