[Impact of obesity in the pathophysiology of degenerative disk disease and in the morbidity and outcome of lumbar spine surgery].

Obesity (BMI>30Kg/m2) is a pandemic with severe medical and financial implications. There is growing evidence that relates certain metabolic processes within the adipose tissue, preferentially abdominal fat, with a low-intensity chronic inflammatory state mediated by adipokines and other substances that favor disk disease and chronic low back pain. Obesity greatly conditions both the preoperative evaluation and the spinal surgical technique itself. Some meta-analyses have confirmed an increase of complications following lumbar spine surgery (mainly infections and venous thrombosis) in obese subjects. However, functional outcomes after lumbar spine surgery are favorable although inferior to the non-obese population, acknowledging that obese patients present with worse baseline function levels and the prognosis of conservatively treated obese cohorts is much worse. The impact of preoperative weight loss in spine surgery has not been prospectively studied in these patients.