Anaesthesia in patients with severe obesity: An uncharted journey

Abstract

Administration of anaesthesia to patients with severe
obesity comes with its own challenges. This has become
even more relevant in current day times as the number of
people with severe obesity is increasing rapidly. There is a
need for all treating doctors, including the referring
physician, the anaesthetist, the operating surgeon, and the
post-operative intensivist, to understand and counsel
about these risks to patients with obesity in the
perioperative period. In this paper, the authors highlight
the risks associated with anaesthesia in a patient with
severe obesity. In addition, the risk assessment and the
impact of obesity on the usage of different anaesthetic
agents are also highlighted.
Keywords: Anesthesia & Obesity; Obesity Surgery
Mortality Risk Score (OSMRS); Bariatric surgery; Obesityrelated
perioperative mortality.