A recent study revealed that obesity should not be viewed as a barrier to shoulder replacement surgery.
In several regions, medical professionals have denied joint replacement to patients with higher body mass index (BMI) because of concerns regarding recovery.
However, scientists report that obese patients actually had a reduced mortality risk after shoulder replacement in contrast to the patients at a healthy weight.
According to a study published November 20 in PLOS Medicine, it was discovered that patients with obesity experienced similar risks of complications and follow-up surgery as those with normal BMI.
Surprisingly, underweight patients showed the poorest results.
Senior author Dr. Jonathan Rees of the University of Oxford stated, “BMI thresholds have been used to limit access to joint replacement surgery, but our findings do not support restricting higher BMI patients.”
Although there are no official medical guidelines tying weight to eligibility for joint replacement, earlier research shows that some health systems do limit access dependent on BMI.
For this study, researchers examined up to 21,000 shoulder replacement patients across the UK and Denmark.
Obese patients showed a 60% reduced risk of death within a year of surgery than healthy-weight patients.
On the contrary, underweight patients experienced a 69% increased risk of death within 90 days, along with more complications and an increased risk of needing revision surgery.
The authors also mentioned study limitations, as few high-BMI patients got surgery. Still, the study showed consistent results across both countries.
Lead author Dr. Epaminondas Markos Valsamis stated, “Our research shows that higher BMI patients do not have poorer outcomes.”
