Obesity: A risk factor for postoperative complications in laparoscopic surgery for colorectal cancer.

Background: The prevalence of obesity in the Eastern Mediterranean is increasing significantly up to 20.8% in 2016. Therefore, a higher percentage of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients are expected to be obese. Laparoscopic colorectal cancer surgery (LCRCS) is regarded as a safe and feasible procedure as laparoscopic approach is becoming the gold standard in CRC surgery, especially in the early stages of disease. However, LCRCS is correlated with a higher risk of short-term post-operative complications in obese patients (body mass index [BMI] ≥30 Kg/m 2 ) than in patients with BMI <30 Kg/m 2 . This study aims to evaluate the impact of obesity on short-term post-operative complications in patients undergoing LCRCS.

Materials and methods: A retrospective study was conducted. Clinical data of case and control patients were extracted from medical records. These patients underwent LCRCS between January 2018 and June 2021 at Hôtel-Dieu de France Hospital, Beirut-Lebanon. Patients were divided into two groups: obese and non-obese. BMI ≥30 Kg/m 2 was used to define obese patients. Post-operative complications in the 30 days following surgery were the primary outcome. The severity of post-operative complications was evaluated using the Clavien-Dindo score. Chi-square test was used to evaluate the statistical correlation between collected variables.

Results: We identified 107 patients who underwent LCRCS during this study period at our institution. Among the patients, 23 were obese (21.49%). At 30 days post-operative, 26 patients were reported to having at least one complication. Non-significant differences were found between the two groups regarding the early post-operative complications rate (obese 26.1% and non-obese 23.8% with P = 0.821). Obesity was not demonstrated as a stratification risk by severity of the early post-operative complications ( P = 0.92).

Conclusion: Obesity, which was defined as BMI ≥30 Kg/m 2 , was not a risk factor for early post-operative complications as well as a stratification risk by severity of post-operative complications in LCRCS.