Obese cardiac surgery patients use more ICU resources

Editor's Note

After cardiac surgery, obese patients required significantly more ICU resources and longer recovery times, resulting in more expensive, labor-intensive care, this study finds.

Of 5,365 patients included in the analysis, 1,948 were classified as obese.

Patients with greater obesity were:

• four times more likely to have longer time in the ICU
• three times more likely to require longer ventilation time
• three times more likely to be readmitted to the ICU.

These patients also experienced longer overall hospital lengths of say and more discharges with home care.

Strategies need to be developed that improve ICU resource utilization in obese patients, the authors say.

Much has been published about the effect of obesity on adverse outcomes after cardiac operations, yet little is known regarding the effect of obesity on intensive care unit (ICU) resource utilization. This study examined the effect of obesity on ICU resource utilization after cardiac operations.