OUTCOMES OF MORBIDLY OBESE PATIENTS RECEIVING INVASIVE MECHANICAL VENTILATION
Obesity is a menace which affects the people of all the parts of the world. Obese patients are considered to be at greater risk of developing complications during chronic illness than their non obese counterparts. Obesity increases the chances of complications manifold, but the chances of mortality remains debatable (Anzueto et al., 2010). It was considered a fact that obese patients suffer poorer outcomes when they are exposed to the invasive mechanical ventilation. It is true that obese patients tend to suffer from respiratory distress more than the non obese, but the chances of progressing to mortality as results of mechanical ventilation are not confirmatory. Studies conducted by different researchers proved that there is no correlation between receiving invasive mechanical ventilation by obese people and consequent morbidity. Their results showed that obese people and the non obese are at equal risk of mortality as a result of mechanical ventilation. However, if more number of organs fail as complications, then the risk of mortality is higher in the obese than the non obese. Respiratory illness alone does not make an obese individual more prone to death. Hence it can be said that the obese patients requiring mechanical ventilation do show a higher morbidity but not mortality. In fact, another study showed that people with a higher BMI or in other words, who are obese, suffer lesser chances of death than those with lower BMI or who are non obese (Brien et al., 2006). Thus it is stated very clearly that obesity has no impact on the mortality rate in the invasive mechanical ventilation patients, it only increases the complications of the invasively mechanically ventilated patients.
References
Anzueto, A., Frutos-Vivar, F., Esteban, A., Bensalami, N., Marks, D., & Raymondos, K. et al. (2010). Influence of body mass index on outcome of the mechanically ventilated patients. Thorax, 66(1), 66-73. doi:10.1136/thx.2010.145086
Brien, J., Phillips, G., Ali, N., Lucarelli, M., Marsh, C., & Lemeshow, S. (2006). Body mass index is independently associated with hospital mortality in mechanically ventilated adults with acute lung injury*. Critical Care Medicine, PAP. doi:10.1097/01.ccm.0000202207.87891.fc
