title: History of spine surgery in older obese patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the interaction of obesity and age in patients with multiple spine surgeries.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data on the body mass index (BMI) of 956 patients were collected and classified into four groups: non-obese (BMI <30 kg/m(2)), obese-class I (BMI ≥30 kg/m(2)), obese-class II (BMI ≥35 kg/m(2)) and obese-class III (BMI ≥40 kg/m(2)). Patients' age was categorized into the following age groups: ≤40, 41-65 and ≥66. T-test and Chi-square test were applied using SPSS v16.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In lumbar patients aged ≥66 years with previous spine surgery, the average number of previous spine surgeries significantly increased with increasing obesity from 1.4 in nonobese patients to 1.7, 2.5 and 3.5 in obese class I, II and III patients. In lumbar decompression and fusion patients aged ≥66 years with previous spine surgery, the average number of previous spine surgeries significantly increased with increasing obesity from 1.7 in nonobese patients to 1.6, 2.0 and 3.5 in obese class I, II and III patients. A similar trend was noted in lumbar microdiskectomy patients aged ≥66 years but it was statistically nonsignificant due probably to small numbers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Obesity is associated with an increased number of previous spine surgeries in patients over 65 years of age undergoing lumbar surgery.
authors.affiliation: Medical Center of Central Georgia, Macon, 31201, USA. mswalid@yahoo.com
authors.forename: M Sami
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Walid
authors.forename: Nadezhda
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zaytseva
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D017586:Diskectomy / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008159:Lumbar Vertebrae / Q000601:surgery; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015995:Prevalence; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013122:Spinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D013123:Spinal Fusion / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*