Key result
Obese patients (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) may have a lower mortality rate after lung cancer surgery, despite having higher morbidity and mortality rates after other elective surgeries.
Why the study?
Although patients with BMI ≥30 kg/m2 generally experience higher surgical morbidity and mortality, particularly after cardiac operations, they appear to have lower mortality after lung cancer surgery.
Although there are many other measures for subject body composition, the body mass index (BMI), calculated by the total weight divided by the square of height, has been widely accepted as a universal tool for the patient health risk assessment. A dramatic increase in baseline BMI has been reported to show a definitive correlation to a range of metabolic, cardiovascular, and malignant diseases (1,2). Current evidence demonstrates that the patients with BMI ≥30 kg/m 2 , who are generally considered as the ‘obese’ patients in routine clinical practice, may have both significantly higher morbidity and mortality rates after elective surgery, especially after cardiac operations (3,4). However, it seems that such “obese” patients may have a lower mortality rate after lung cancer surgery (3).
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Li et al. (2019) conducted an editorial in Lung cancer surgery. Obesity (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) vs. Non-obese patients was evaluated on Mortality rate. Obese patients (BMI ≥30 kg/m2) may have a lower mortality rate after lung cancer surgery, despite having higher morbidity and mortality rates after other elective surgeries.
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