Body Mass Index (BMI) Should be taken into consideration before hip/ knee replacements. Patients with excessive body weight, high BMI should first be sent for bariatric surgery, before doing hip/ knee replacements because Post-operative ambulation becomes slow and delayed. Patients put on more weight after surgery due to sluggish life for a month. Life of implant gets reduced. We now have a 150kg patient BMI - 50, admitted for Bariatric surgery, who underwent Bilateral knee replacement 6 months back in a very reputed hospital in Hyderabad. He was reoperated thrice but could not walk.
He gained 30 Kgs weight in this time. Surprisingly, the hospital which replaced his both knees also has bariatric surgery. Ortho surgeons who replaced his both knees are least bothered about his weight. Never thought of referring that patient to Bariatric unit of their own hospital. Perhaps they don't…
