Over 35% of the US population is obese, leading to earlier arthroplasty needs, increased comorbidities, surgical challenges, and higher complication and revision rates. Concurrently, outpatient hip and knee arthroplasty procedures are increasing. This study aimed to evaluate early complication rates of same-day discharge (SDD) arthroplasty in severely obese patients (body mass index BMI ≥40). We retrospectively reviewed 15,133 primary hip or knee arthroplasty patients from 2015 to 2022, divided into four groups: obese SDD (n = 247), obese overnight (n = 1123), nonobese SDD (n = 5184), and nonobese overnight (n = 8579). Obese SDD patients were significantly younger than obese overnight patients (mean age 58.8 vs. 62.9 years, P 40) without significantly increasing early surgical complications. However, the inherently higher revision rate for high BMI patients undergoing joint replacement remains, irrespective of discharge timing.
Balkam et al. (Fri,) studied this question.