Do pretransplant cachexia and morbid obesity increase mortality after heart transplantation compared to normal weight?
Pretransplant cachexia and morbid obesity are associated with increased mortality after heart transplantation, highlighting the importance of recipient size in patient selection.
The risks of cardiac transplantation are increased in both morbidly obese and cachectic patients compared with normal-weight recipients. However, the results of cardiac transplantation in overweight patients is comparable to that in normal-weight patients. Recipient size should be kept in mind while selecting patients and the use of oversized donors in cachectic recipients should be avoided.
Lietz et al. (Sun,) studied this question.