Body mass index and weight loss in patients submitted to orthognathic surgery: a prospective study

To compare the body mass index (BMI) and the weight loss (WL) in patients with dentofacial deformities who underwent monomaxillary versus bimaxillary orthognathic surgery.

This prospective longitudinal study included 69 patients with dentofacial deformities who underwent surgical orthodontic treatment. Patients were divided into two groups according to the type of orthognathic surgery: monomaxillary or bimaxillary. A preoperative nutritional assessment based on BMI was performed; the percentage of involuntary WL between the preoperative and postoperative periods was also calculated. Data were collected at preoperative and 10, 40, and 90 days postoperative (PO). Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 17.0 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA), and data are reported with 95% confidence interval.

According to BMI, patients who underwent monomaxillary surgery presented: underweight = 2.6%, normal weight = 51.3%, overweight = 35.9%, and obese = 10.3%. The subjects who underwent bimaxillary surgery presented: normal weight = 43.3%, overweight = 36.7%, and obese = 20%. BMI was similar between the groups at all time points (preoperative, p= 0.237; 10 days PO, p= 0.325; 40 days PO, p= 0.430; and 90 days PO, p= 0.609). All patients lost weight postoperatively, and WL was similar among the PO measurements (p= 0.163).

Although both monomaxillary and bimaxillary orthognathic surgeries resulted in WL and lower BMI, there was no statistically significant difference in these metrics between the two types of surgery.