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Does obesity prolong anesthesia in children undergoing common ENT surgery?
Jennifer J Lee1, Lena S Sun, Brian Gu
1Department of Anesthesiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Paediatric Anaesthesia
|May 15, 2014
Summary
Obesity is common in children undergoing surgery, especially for ear, nose, and throat procedures. However, obesity does not increase anesthesia or surgical time for common procedures like tonsillectomy.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Surgery
- Public Health
- Anesthesiology
Background:
- Childhood obesity is a major public health concern in the U.S.
- Limited recent epidemiological data exists for pediatric surgical populations.
- Previous studies focused on states with high adult obesity rates.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the prevalence of obesity in pediatric surgical patients.
- To investigate if obesity is a risk factor for extended anesthesia duration.
- To analyze recent data from a large academic medical center.
Main Methods:
- Anesthesia records of patients aged 2-18 years were reviewed (Jan 2009 - Dec 2010).
- Exclusion criteria included bariatric surgery and missing height/weight data.
- Obesity was defined as Body Mass Index (BMI) ≥95th percentile.
Main Results:
- 17.2% of 9522 pediatric surgical patients were obese.
- The otolaryngology (ENT) cohort showed the highest obesity rate (21.7%).
- Obese children undergoing tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy had similar anesthesia and surgical durations compared to nonobese children.
Conclusions:
- Pediatric surgical patients, particularly in ENT, exhibit a high prevalence of obesity.
- Obesity was not associated with longer anesthesia or surgical times for tonsillectomy/adenoidectomy.
- These findings suggest obesity does not complicate these specific pediatric surgical procedures regarding duration.
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