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Obesity and surgical site infections risk in orthopedics: a meta-analysis
1Department of Orthopedics, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou City, Jiangsu Province 215000, PR China. pphss@126.com
Objectives:
The aim of this meta-analysis is to assess the association between obesity and risk of surgical site infections (SSI) risk in orthopedics.
Methods:
We searched the electronic database of PubMed and Web of Science for observational studies about risk factors for SSI risk in orthopedics, meta-analysis of body mass index (BMI) between infection group and no infection group, infection rate in obesity expose and no obesity expose were conducted, respectively.
Results:
A total of 20 studies included in the meta-analysis. The pooled weighted mean difference (WMD) of BMI between infection group and no infection group was 0.329 (95% CI 0.215-0.444), which was statistically significant (z = 5.65, p = 0.000). The pooled relative risk (RR) of infection rate compare obesity expose with no obesity expose was 1.915 (95% CI 1.530-2.396), which was statistically significant (z = 5.68, p = 0.000). No publication bias was found (Begg test P = 0.174 and Egger test P = 0.345) in pooled WMD of BMI. But there was significant publication bias in pooled RR of infection rate (Begg test P = 0.001 and Egger test P = 0.001).
Conclusion:
Our meta-analysis indicates that obesity had about twofold increased risk of surgical site infections risk in orthopedics. However, this conclusion should be verified by further well designed prospective cohort studies.
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