-Report on Experiments and Clinical Cases-

A Case of Obesity Hypoventilation Syndrome with Respiratory Failure that Improved with Abdominoplasty

Hiroaki Kuwahara¹, Kazuhito Kubo¹, Goh Akiyama², Yasuhiro Takayama², Ryouichi Tosa² and Hiko Hyakusoku³

¹Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Aidu Chuo Hospital
²Department of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care, Aidu Chuo Hospital
³Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgery, Nippon Medical School Hospital

We report on a 70-year-old man with severe respiratory failure caused by obesity hypoventilation syndrome due to abdominal adiposis. Obesity hypoventilation syndrome is a severe condition that is diagnosed when all of the following criteria are satisfied: body-mass index >30 kg/m²; apnea hypopnea index >30; PaCO₂ >45 mm Hg (in the daytime); and marked daytime somnolence. Abdominoplasty, which is generally used for abdominal laxness, striae, and rectus muscle diastases and for women in the postpartum period, was performed for this patient to facilitate ventilator weaning and produced a satisfactory result.

J Nippon Med Sch 2015; 82: 39-42

Keywords
abdominoplasty, adiposis, respiratory failure, obesity hypoventilation syndrome

Correspondence to
Hiroaki Kuwahara, MD, Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Aidu Chuo Hospital, 1-1 Tsuruga-cho, Aizu-wakamatsu City, Fukushima 965-8611, Japan
hiroaki-pc@nms.ac.jp

Received, August 5, 2014
Accepted, November 19, 2014