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Summary Background Obesity increases the risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE), but whether high-dose thromboprophylaxis is safe and effective in morbidly obese inpatients is unknown. Objective To quantify the efficacy and safety of high-dose thromboprophylaxis with heparin or enoxaparin in inpatients with weight > 100 kilograms (kg) within the BJC HealthCare system. Patients/Methods In a retrospective cohort study, we analyzed 9241 inpatients with weight > 100 kg discharged from three hospitals in the BJC HealthCare system from 2010 through 2012. We compared the incidence of VTE in patients who received high-dose thromboprophylaxis (heparin 7500 units three times daily or enoxaparin 40 milligrams (mg) twice daily) to those who received standard doses (heparin 5000 units two or three times daily or enoxaparin 40 mg once daily). The primary efficacy outcome was hospital-acquired VTE identified by International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-9 diagnosis codes. The primary safety outcome was bleeding events identified by ICD-9 codes. Results Among the 3928 morbidly obese inpatients (weight > 100kg and body mass index (BMI) ≥ 40 kg/m2), high-dose thromboprophylaxis approximately halved the odds of symptomatic VTE (odds ratio (OR) 0.52, 95% CI 0.27-1.00; p-value (p) = 0.050). The rate of VTE was 1.48% (35/2369) in these morbidly obese inpatients who received standard doses of thromboprophylaxis, compared to 0.77% (12/1559) in those who received high doses. High-dose thromboprophylaxis did not increase bleeding (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.66-1.07, p = 0.15). Independent predictors of VTE include surgery, male, cancer, and BMI. Conclusions High-dose thromboprophylaxis nearly halves the rate of VTE in morbidly obese inpatients.

GPs and paediatricians have the opportunity to screen children for overweight and obesity during their everyday practice. Accurate determination of weight status cannot be performed by visualisation alone and all children should have height and weight measured and correctly interpreted. Some areas of current GP and paediatrician management of overweight and obese children fall short of the NHMRC clinical guidelines and areas for improvement are highlighted in this paper.

Although bariatric surgery is a safe and effective procedure in the treatment of adolescent morbid obesity, long-term data is scarce regarding its nutritional and developmental complication in this growing population of patients.

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