Weight Loss, Not BMI Alone, Predicts Wound Complication Risk in Obese Hernia Patients

A retrospective study analyzed 182 obese patients who underwent open transversus abdominis release (TAR) for complex ventral hernias. Among these patients, those with a BMI greater than 40 did not show significant differences in surgical site occurrences and infections compared to those with a lower BMI. However, patients who achieved at least a 3% preoperative weight loss had decreased rates of surgical site infections, indicating that weight loss could be a more accurate marker of wound morbidity risk following TAR than BMI alone.