Obesity raises risk for hip surgery

GENEVA, Switzerland, May 9 (UPI) -- Obesity increases hip osteoarthritis risk and makes treatment with a total hip arthroplasty harder, a Swiss study finds.

The study, published in Arthritis Care & Research, said total hip arthroplasty -- replacing the hip joint -- is a technically-challenging intervention prone to complications, particularly in obese patients.

"Surgeons, patients, and referring physicians should be aware of an increased risk in this patient group," study lead author Dr. Anne Lubbeke of Geneva University Hospitals in Switzerland said in a statement. "Further studies are necessary to evaluate whether changes in medical preparation, surgical technique and implant choice can help reduce the adverse event rate in obese patients undergoing revision total hip arthroplasty."

In terms of specific complications, the incident rate was four times higher for surgical site infection and 3.5 times higher for dislocation.

Although patient satisfaction was gauged to be about the same for both groups, there were more complications in obese patients -- 20 occurring in 17 of the 52 obese patients. In addition, the rate for occurrence of one or more adverse events rose as weight increased -- with 18 events in 13 of the 152 non-obese patients.