New research has found that severe obesity can increase the risk of health problems during surgery.
A report published in the Journal of the American Heart Association states that healthcare providers should take the unique risk factors associated with the condition more seriously when considering all types of surgery.
The authors claim that heart problems are often underestimated during physical examinations on severely obese patients.
'A severely obese patient can be technically difficult to evaluate prior to surgery,' said lead author Dr Paul Poirier, from the Universite Laval in Quebec, Canada.
'For example, severely obese people might feel chest tightness that could be a symptom of their obesity or of an underlying cardiac problem. Doctors need to carefully evaluate severely obese patients before they have surgery.'
People suffering from severe obesity have a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or higher.
Some of the conditions associated with obesity which could increase heart risks in surgery include heart failure, high blood pressure, heart rhythm disorders and a history of blood clots.
The new study suggests that some surgeons are under the impression that severely obese patients are more likely to die during surgery than people who are not obese and will not operate on them as a result.
Dr Poirier rejects this opinion, though, stating: 'Severely obese patients are at increased risk for pulmonary embolism, wound infection and other conditions. But they are not more likely than their lower-weight counterparts to die as a result of surgery.'
Severely obese people should ask their surgeons whether a particular surgical procedure is safe for a patient of their size, the authors claim.
The report outlines a series of recommendations and tests for clinicians to carry out both before and after surgery to reduce the potential for complications.