Being overweight may not have as much of a physical impact on your shoulder joint as it can for joints like your hips and knees, but that doesn’t mean that your weight won’t be a topic of conversation if shoulder replacement is possibly in your future. Your weight can have a significant impact on the likelihood of a successful surgery, and your doctor will want to talk with you about some risk factors and what you can do in the lead up to surgery to increase your chances of a successful surgery and recovery. In today’s blog, we take a closer look at the connection between obesity and your shoulder replacement procedure.
How Obesity Affects Shoulder Replacement Surgery
As we mentioned above, one nice thing about your shoulder joint is that it will not be as physically impacted by the excess weight of an overweight or obese person. Your back, hips, knees and feet have to help handle this extra stress, but your shoulders remain relatively protected from a physical standpoint, although as you’ll see below, it certainly seems like obesity can impact the mechanical function of your shoulder joint.
That said, being overweight can put you at risk for certain issues during and after your surgery. Here’s a look at some of the risks that your shoulder surgeon will want to account for if you have a higher than average body mass index.
- Need For Revision – A recent study found that obesity was associated with an increased likelihood of needing to undergo a revision procedure or reoperation. According to researchers, among patients with a BMI 35 or higher, each additional one-unit increase in BMI was associated with a five percent increase in the risk of reoperation for any reason. Those findings were even more evident when looking at patients who needed to undergo a revisional procedure for mechanical failure. In patients with a BMI of 30 or above, every one-unit increase in BMI was associated with a five person increased risk of need for revision.
- Wound Infection – The study also found that obese individuals were more likely to develop a superficial wound infection following their shoulder replacement procedure. For every one-unit increase in BMI, researchers found a nine percent increase in wound infection risk.
- Function – One bright spot is that obesity does not appear to have a detrimental effect on the ability to achieve certain functional outcomes after a shoulder replacement procedure. That said, an obese person may experience less functional improvement than nonobese patients. What this means is that while both obese and nonobese patients can expect to be able to perform a variety of physical functions after shoulder replacement, a nonobese person may, for example, have more flexibility in their shoulder, but this is due to the person’s size and not tied to how obesity impacted a person’s surgery and recovery.
And while being obese doesn’t appear to carry an increased likelihood of problematic blood clot formation, which has been seen in patients receiving a new knee or hip, it’s clear that there are still significant benefits to working towards a healthy weight prior to your shoulder replacement procedure. Even just losing a little weight can significantly reduce your risk of needing a revision or reoperation, which is something that nobody wants to deal with.
If you’re at all concerned about how your weight could impact the success of your surgery, or you want to work with a surgeon who can help you account for all relevant factors leading up to and after your operation, pick up the phone and give Dr. Holloway and his team a call today at (865) 410-7887.
