Back pain and sagittal spine alignment in obese patients eligible for bariatric surgery

Abstract

Objective: The objective of this research was to evaluate the prevalence of cervical and lumbar pain in obese patients eligible for bariatric surgery and to investigate possible changes in sagittal spine alignment in these patients.

Methods: The following parameters were compared in 30 obese patients and a control group of 25 non-obese volunteers: body mass index, prevalence of cervical and lumbar pain assessed by visual analog scale (VAS), Neck Disability Index [NDI] and Oswestry Disability Index [ODI], as well as radiographic parameters of the spine and pelvis measured with Surgimap software.

Results: The cervical and lumbar VAS and the NDI and ODI were significantly worse in obese patients. Compared with the control group, the cervical sagittal vertical axis (cSVA) of the obese group had higher variance (p value=0.0025) and the cervical lordosis was diminished (p value=0.0023). Thoracic kyphosis, lumbar lordosis, and the pelvic parameters were not significantly different between the groups.

Conclusions: Obese patients demonstrated lower functional performance compared with their non-obese counterparts, while cervical lordosis was diminished and the cSVA was increased in obese patients.