ASSESSMENT OF PULMONARY FUNCTIONS IN OBESE PATIENTS AFTER LAPAROSCOPIC
GASTRIC SURGERY
Abstract
Background: Obesity is an important, worldwide public health problem.
Obesity affects all body systems, but mainly cardiovascular and
respiratory systems. Aim: We aimed to investigate the change in
respiratory functions due to both the decrease in body-mass index (BMI)
and laparoscopic obesity surgery that is used in obesity treatment.
Methods: Patients were selected who applied to Ondokuz Mayıs University
General Surgery Clinics and were referred to pulmonary medicine clinics
for preoperative evaluation. The mean age of patients was 35.3±9.3. 32
patients who applied for laparoscopic obesity surgery with
BMI>40 kg/m2 were monitored. Pulmonary symptoms of patients
were evaluated pre-operatively and post-operatively; their BMIs were
calculated and pulmonary function tests, lung diffusion testing and 6
minutes walking test (6 MWT) were applied. The data obtained at the end
of the study were assessed under computer setting by SPSS 15.0 program.
Chi-Square, Mann Whitney U, Wilcoxon Signed Ranks, Paired T and Student
T tests were used in statistical analysis of data. Results: Average age
of patients was 35.3±9.3 and 28.1% of the patients (n=9) were men,
71.9% (n=23) of them were women. The fact that majority of patients who
participated the study were women was related with more frequent morbid
obesity in women in general; we also saw that women patients applied to
the hospital for obesity surgery at a higher ratio. When data of
preoperative and post-operative were compared, BMI of patients decreased
by 28%; FEV₁ value, FEV₁ percentage, FVC value and FVC percentages
increased by 11.9%, 14.8%, 14.8% and 17.3% respectively, and these
results were accepted as statistically significant. Conclusion: Recovery
in respiratory functions due to decrease in BMI was observed after
laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in obesity. More effective routes must
be followed in fighting against obesity which affect all the body
systems mainly including cardiovascular and respiratory systems.