A new study has found that obese patients have nearly 12 times higher risk of complications following elective plastic surgery than their normal-weight counterparts, according to news release by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
An estimated one-third of U.S. adults are obese, defined as having a body mass index of more than 30, and that is twice the percentage of a decade ago. Meanwhile, annual plastic surgery volume grew by 725 percent from 1992-2005.
Researchers said surgery on obese patients is usually more risky than for other patients because operating fields are deeper, the spaces in which an infection can start are often greater and blood flow in fat tissue is lower, resulting in slower healing.
Read the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine release on the obesity study.
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