Obesity, Trauma, and Inflammation



Today, I am attending the 8th World Congress on Trauma, Shock, Inflammation and Sepsis in Munich, Germany.

Interestingly, this conference features a whole series of seminars on the interdisciplinary management of obesity (under the rather unfortunate title ‘Fat Man – We Will Help You’ [sic]).

I have been invited to chair and speak at the session on medical therapy, but there are also sessions on adipose tissue biology, perioperative management, bariatric surgical procedures, and the emergency management of bariatric patients.

As I often say in my presentations to colleagues: it does not matter what discipline in medicine you practice – you will be seeing an increasing number of heavier patients with their own issues and complications.

The fact that a world conference on trauma should devote this much time to sessions on obesity assessment and management is clearly to be commended in the light of the global obesity epidemic.

The more all health professionals learn and understand the complexities and problems posed by heavier patients, the better we can serve this particularly vulnerable patient population.

AMS
Munich, Germany