PMID: 3319903Jun 1, 1987Paper

Pulmonary function in morbid obesity

Gastroenterology Clinics of North America
H J Sugerman

Abstract

Morbid obesity is not infrequently associated with severe respiratory impairment. In our experience approximately 10 per cent of morbidly obese patients who underwent gastric surgery had severe respiratory impairment. Respiratory insufficiency of obesity can be divided into two primary breathing disorders: the obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) and the obesity hypoventilation syndrome (OHS). In its most severe form, when both SAS and OHS are present, it is called the Pickwickian syndrome. In our series 59 morbidly obese patients with respiratory insufficiency secondary to obesity underwent gastric surgery for weight reduction. Fourteen had OHS, 19 had SAS and 26 had both. Of these, two patients died of postoperative complications and one died at five weeks with an inconclusive autopsy, totalling an operative mortality rate of 3.4 per cent and a total mortality of 5.1 per cent. In our overall experience morbidly obese patients lost 67 per cent of excess weight after gastric procedures. In conclusion, surgically induced weight loss will markedly improve or correct respiratory insufficiency secondary to obesity. It will improve arterial oxygenation, minimize CO2 retention, expand lung volumes, correct polycythemia, and reduce ...Continue Reading

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