The Relationship Between Visceral Obesity and Post-operative Complications: A Meta-Analysis

Body composition can have important influence on surgical outcome. There is substantial literature examining sarcopenia, however much less in known about the impact of fat. Visceral fat area (VFA) is a reliable measures of fat distribution that can be quantified with CT scan. The aim of this study is to determine the impact of VFA to predict complications and mortality after emergent or elective surgery.

A systematic review and meta-analysis was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis guidelines. The primary objective was to determine impact of VFA, quantified by preoperative CT scan, has on in-hospital complications and 30-day mortality after emergent or elective surgery. We included peer review English studies of adult patients who underwent elective or emergency surgery and had VFA quantified on preoperative CT scan. Obstetrical patients, case studies, and case series were excluded.

Our search strategy identified 3782 citations. After removal of duplicates, application of inclusion criteria and full text review, 19 studies were included. Methodological quality of all studies was fair to good as assessed by Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. There were no significant differences between patients with visceral obesity compared to normal VFA for 30-day mortality or overall postoperative complications. Our analysis did demonstrated an association between visceral obesity and increased surgical site infection, pneumonia, and postoperative pancreatic fistula.

Our findings suggest further studies are necessary to determine the impact of VFA on postoperative outcomes and identifies the importance of establishing standardized assessment for body composition on CT.