Purpose
The aim was to test the impact of body mass
index (BMI) and gender on infectious complications after
polytrauma.
Methods
A total of 651 patients were included in this
retrospective study, with an Injury Severity Score
(ISS) C16 and age C16 years. The sample was subdivided
into three groups: BMI\25 kg/m2, BMI 25–30 kg/m2, and
BMI[30 kg/m2, and a female and a male group. Infectious
complications were observed for 31 days after admission.
Data are given as mean ± standard errors of the means.
Analysis of variance, Kruskal–Wallis test, v2 tests, and
Pearson’s correlation were used for the analyses and the
significance level was set at P\0.05.
Results
The overall infection rates were 31.0 % in the
BMI\25 kg/m2 group, 29.0 % in the BMI 25–30 kg/m2
group, and 24.5 % in the BMI[30 kg/m2 group
(P = 0.519). The female patients developed significantly
fewer infectious complications than the male patients (26.8
vs. 73.2 %; P\0.001). The incidence of death was significantly
decreased according to the BMI group (8.8 vs.
7.2 vs. 1.5 %; P\0.0001) and the female population had a
significantly lower mortality rate (4.1 vs. 13.4 %;
P\0.0001). Pearson’s correlations between the Abbreviated
Injury Scale (AIS) score and the corresponding
infectious foci were not significant.
Conclusion
Higher BMI seems to be protective against
polytrauma-associated death but not polytrauma-associated
infections, and female gender protects against both polytrauma-
associated infections and death. Understanding
gender-specific immunomodulation could improve the
outcome of polytrauma patients