Relationship between obesity and the risk of gynecologic laparoscopy in Korean women.

Study Objective: To determine whether obesity increases risk of performing laparoscopic gynecologic surgery in Korean women.

Design: Retrospective analysis over 35 consecutive months (Canadian Task Force classification II-2).

Setting: University-affiliated hospital.

Patients: Two hundred seventy-seven women who underwent gynecologic laparoscopic surgery.

Intervention: Patients were analyzed by chart review.

Measurements And Main Results: Obesity was defined as body mass index (BMI) 25 kg/m(2) or greater. Patients were categorized on the basis of BMI [weight (kg)/height(2) (m(2))] as obese (BMI > or =25, 74 women) or nonobese (BMI < 25, 203). Each group was further divided into three subgroups according to operation difficulty. No significant differences in patient age, parity, menopausal status, medicosurgical illness, or history of intraabdominal surgery were apparent between groups, except for distribution of operation difficulty and adhesion grade; however, the adhesion grade was evenly distributed in each operation grade subgroup. In the two BMI groups, no significant differences were seen in surgical values (estimated blood loss, operating time, operative complications, postoperative complications, hospital stay, rate of conversion to laparotomy).

Conclusion: Obesity had generally been thought to increase the risk of laparoscopic surgery. In our study in obese Korean women, however, it did not seem to increase the risk, and gynecologic laparoscopic surgery was performed safely.