The purpose of this study is to review the saftey of panniculectomy combined with gynecologic operations.

A chart review was performed an all patients who underwent abdominal hysterectomy with or without a panniculectomy between June 2005 and June 2004. Only morbidly obese patients (Body Mass Index of >40 kg/m2) were included in the study.

Thirty-six patients had combined panniculectomy and abdominal hysterectomy, 14 had an abdominal hysterectomy without a panniculectomy. The mean operative time for the combined procedure was 3.38 hours versus 2.61 hours without panniculectomy. The mean estimated blood loss was 526 cc for the combined procedure (CP) and 536 cc for hysterectomy alone (HA). There were 2 wound infections in the CP group (5.6%) versus 3 in the HA group (21.4%). There was one wound dehiscence in the CP group (2.8%) and one in the HA group (7.1%). There was one inadvertent enterotomy in the HA group (7.1%) and none in the CP group.

Our findings, in constrast to previous studies, reveal that panniculectomy combined with pelvic surgery in the morbidly obese is a safe procedure that can decrease the incidence of intraoperative complications and postoperative wound complications without significantly increasing operative time or blood loss.