
Study: Obese don't have to lose weight before joint replacement
MONDAY, July 24, 2017 -- Obese patients don't need to lose weight before undergoing knee or hip replacement surgery, a new study contends."Severely obese patients can benefit a lot from the surgery," said study lead author Wenjun Li, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School."Patients who can lose weight should, but we acknowledge many people can't, or it will take a long time during which their joints will worsen. If they can get the surgery earlier, once function is restored they can better address obesity," Li said in a university news release.For the study, researchers examined the outcomes of more than 2,000 patients who had total hip replacement and just under 3,000 who had total knee replacement in the United States between May 2011 and Mar...