Primary Article

Anesthesia in the Morbidly Obese Patient

Authors: LARRY PUTNAM MD, JOHN A. JENICEK MD, CHARLES R. ALLEN PhD, MD, ROY D. WILSON MD

Abstract

Abstract:A review of the literature pertaining to anesthesia for the obese surgical patient is presented, and data are provided from a retrospective study of 59 morbidly obese patients evaluated for anesthesia for surgical procedures at The University of Texas Medical Branch Hospitals. The majority of the patients were successfully managed with general anesthetic technics; four (7.1%) of the 56 patients who had operations died. All patients in the series who experienced morbidity or mortality had ponderal indices of 10.4 or lower. Pulmonary complications were by far the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the series, with pulmonary embolism the most common pulmonary complication.

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