Obesity: is it an additional risk factor in analyzing surgical outcomes in the South Indian population?

AIM: This study aims to determine whether obesity impacts surgical outcomes among patients undergoing surgery at the Surgery Unit in a tertiary care hospital. METHODS: This is a retrospective study. Data were retrieved from the medical records of patients who underwent surgery at a tertiary care hospital. Patient demographics, co-morbidities, intraoperative and postoperative pain scores and complications, if occurring, were compiled for each patient. Patients were subdivided into four subsets based on their disease profile. Each subset was divided into two groups based on their body mass index (BMI). Preoperative BMI greater than or equal to 25 kg/m2 was classified as obese. RESULTS: The study showed that there is a considerable increase in the duration of surgery in obese when compared to non-obese. 30 days readmission rate was higher among obese in all the subsets. We find that in the subset of non-infective conditions, post operative pain mean ranking score is greater among obese (128.8 vs 109.6). CONCLUSIONS: In conclusion, the impact of obesity resulted in increased duration of surgery and post-operative pain. The association between obesity and surgical outcome shows the importance to further research to find a way to prevention of some of the complications of surgery that could occur in patients with high BMI.

STROCSS 2021: Strengthening the reporting of cohort, cross-sectional and case-control studies in surgery.

INTRODUCTION: Strengthening The Reporting Of Cohort Studies in Surgery (STROCSS) guidelines were developed in 2017 in order to improve the reporting quality of observational studies in surgery and updated in 2019. In order to maintain relevance and continue upholding good reporting quality among observational studies in surgery, we aimed to update STROCSS 2019 guidelines. METHODS: A STROCSS 2021 steering group was formed to come up with proposals to update STROCSS 2019 guidelines. An expert panel of researchers assessed these proposals and judged whether they should become part of STROCSS 2021 guidelines or not, through a Delphi consensus exercise. RESULTS: 42 people (89%) completed the DELPHI survey and hence participated in the development of STROCSS 2021 guidelines. All items received a score between 7 and 9 by greater than 70% of the participants, indicating a high level of agreement among the DELPHI group members with the proposed changes to all the items. CONCLUSION: We present updated STROCSS 2021 guidelines to ensure ongoing good reporting quality among observational studies in surgery.