Association between BMI and Intraoperative Time and Length of Hospital Stay among Patients undergoing Laparoscopic Colorectal Surgery: A Retrospective Study

Introduction: Now-a-days, most surgeons are aware that obese patients face more difficulties during laparoscopic colorectal surgery compared to non obese patients, especially with the prevalence of advanced laparoscopic procedures. Aim: To investigate the association between Body Mass Index (BMI) and operative time, as well as the length of hospital stay after laparoscopic colorectal surgery. Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational study was conducted at Sri Guru Ram Das (SGRD) Charitable Hospital in Amritsar, Punjab, India, from January 2016 to January 2019. The study included 139 patients who underwent laparoscopic colorectal surgery. The dataset consisted of four variables: BMI (continuous), intraoperative time (continuous), diagnosis (nominal, including various diseases such as Crohn’s disease, colon cancer, ulcerative colitis, and diverticulitis), and length of stay (dichotomous, categorised as “yes” if the total length of stay in the hospital was greater than three days, and “no” if it was three days or under). Mean and standard deviations were calculated for both BMI and intraoperative time. The Pearson’s r correlation test was used to assess the association between BMI and intraoperative time. Results: A total of 139 patients were included in the study, with 72 (51.80%) having a length of stay less than three days and 67 (48.20%) having a length of stay greater than three days. Higher BMI was found to be associated with a prolonged length of stay (>three days) in the hospital following colorectal surgery, with a p-value of 0.007. However, the study did not find a statistically significant association between BMI and intraoperative time, with a p-value of 0.1795. Conclusion: Obese patients tend to spend a longer time in the hospital compared to non obese patients. Therefore, caution should be exercised when performing elective laparoscopic procedures on obese patients.