About 17 percent of severely obese Canadians who require emergency surgery could not survive the operation in hospital, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Alberta.
The research, recently published in the Canadian Journal of Surgery, also found that nearly half of the severely obese people needed to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) and one-third required multiple surgeries.
The new study involved 111 patients treated at the University of Alberta Hospital between 2009 and 2011. All had a body mass index of 35 or higher and all were admitted for urgent or emergency surgery through the emergency department.
The results indicates that hospitals need to be better prepared to deal with the increasing number of Canadians living with severe obesity.
The report also found that many obese people are actually malnourished. Their diets tend to be high in calories but deficient in essential vitamins and minerals critical for recovery from an illness or surgery.
Obese people tend to have underlying health problems such as high blood pressure that increase the risks of blood clots and other post-surgery complications.
In 2013, 19 percent of Canadians aged 18 and above -- roughly 4.9 million Canadians -- were classified as obese, according to Statistics Canada.