Pre-transplant obesity in heart transplantation: are there predictors of worse outcomes?

Objective: Morbid obesity is increasingly observed in patients being evaluated for heart transplantation and represents a relative contraindication. We sought to evaluate the influence of pre-transplant obesity on morbidity and mortality after heart transplantation.

Design: We retrospectively reviewed 90 consecutive patients with preoperative obesity (BMI > or = 30) and 90 age matched patients with normal weight (BMI 19 - 26) who underwent heart transplantation at our institution between January 1997 and December 2005.