261.6 Kilograms: Huadong Hospital Operates Successfully on a 'Super-Obese' Patient

The bariatric and metabolic surgery team at Fudan University Huadong Hospital has successfully performed a single-port laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy on a 43-year-old male patient weighing 523.2 jin (261.6 kilograms), with a waist circumference of 1.86 meters and a body mass index as high as 86.4 kg per square meter. The weight and BMI set new records for surgical cases at Huadong Hospital, and he is the heaviest patient publicly reported in China to undergo this type of single-port procedure. The patient also had type 2 diabetes, hypertension, severe fatty liver, asthma and severe obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome.

The hospital activated a multidisciplinary collaboration mechanism, and half a month of preoperative management including non-invasive ventilator-assisted ventilation improved all his indicators. For his difficult airway, with a neck circumference of 52 centimeters, the anesthesia team led by Gu Weidong used a "sniffing position" pad, high-flow nasal oxygen therapy and bispectral index-guided precise drug dosing. The team led by chief physician Yang Jianjun completed the surgery in just 65 minutes through an incision of about 3 centimeters, with blood loss of less than 20 milliliters.

The patient was discharged smoothly and is expected to lose about 300 jin over a year and a half.