Does obesity prolong anesthesia in children undergoing common ENT surgery?
OBJECTIVE
To report the epidemiology of obesity in a pediatric surgical population and determine whether obesity is a risk factor for longer anesthesia duration.


BACKGROUND
Childhood obesity is a significant public health problem in the United States. Epidemiologic studies on pediatric surgical populations have been limited to states with very high prevalence of adult obesity (Michigan, Texas). Data from other states and more recent data since 2006 are unavailable.


METHODS
We examined anesthesia records for surgical patients age 2-18 years at Columbia University Medical Center from January 2009 to December 2010. Patients undergoing bariatric surgery or those with records missing preoperative height or weight data were excluded. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as weight (kg)/height (m(2) ). BMI ≥95th percentile according to national growth charts were considered obese.


RESULTS
We reviewed 9522 patients of which 1639 were obese (17.2%). The sex-age category interaction on obesity was not significant using logistic regression (P = 0.11). Among surgical groups, the otolaryngology (ENT) cohort had the highest obesity rate (21.7%, 360/1656). Obese children who had tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, or both did not have a prolonged anesthetic (P = 0.33) or surgical duration (P = 0.61) compared with nonobese children, adjusting for surgeon, season, surgical procedure code, and ASA status.


CONCLUSIONS
Children presenting for surgery, particularly the ENT cohort, have a high prevalence of obesity. Obese and nonobese children who had tonsillectomy, adenoidectomy, or both had comparable durations of anesthesia. Therefore, obesity did not lead to longer anesthetic duration.
Department of Anesthesiology, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
Jennifer J
JJ
Lee
Lena S
LS
Sun
Brian
B
Gu
Minjae
M
Kim
Shuang
S
Wang
Sena
S
Han
D000233:Adenoidectomy; D000293:Adolescent; D000375:Aging / Q000502:physiology; D000758:Anesthesia; D000762:Anesthesia Recovery Period; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009765:Obesity / Q000150:complications*; D013517:Otorhinolaryngologic Surgical Procedures / Q000379:methods*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D012727:Sex Characteristics; D014068:Tonsillectomy
anesthesia; child; complications; obesity; otolaryngology; outcomes