Obesity complicates breast surgery, confounding surgical quality metrics
Breast surgery complications twelve times higher for obese women
Researchers suggest obesity should be accounted for when deciding on insurance reimbursement incentives that “pay for performance”.
A new study finds obese women have more complications after breast surgery and more medical claims that could skew standardized measures of surgical quality.
Compared to normal weight women, researchers found obesity was associated with a twelve-fold increase in breast surgery complications that include infection, pain, bleeding and post-operative hematoma.
The study, published in the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, highlights the role of inflammation related to obesity.
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