Is male gender a predictor of morbidity and age a predictor of mortality for patients undergoing gastric bypass surgery?
Large male patients are at greater risk for severe life-threatening complications than smaller and/or female patients. Risk factors thought to be predictive of adverse outcomes, such as a history of smoking or diabetes, proved not to be significant in this analysis. Older patients had the same complication rate but a threefold higher mortality, suggesting that they lack the reserve to recover from complications when they occur.
The changes revealed by pre-operative screening were usually of little clinical relevance and did not prompt major changes to the anaesthetic technique.