Table 2. Incidence of venous thromboembolism in the obese population undergoing spine surgery.

First author	Study design	Subjects (n)	Incidence of infection	Comments
Jiang27	Meta-analysis	85,085	OR BMI > 30 kg/m2: 3.15, 95% CI: 1.92–5.17	Evidence graded as moderate
Kalanithi31	Retrospective database review	84,607	OR BMI > 40 kg/m2: PE/DVT: 3.34, 95% CI: 2.01–5.54	Review of morbidly obese patients undergoing cervical or lumbar fusion
Marquez-Lara29	Retrospective database review	24,196	RR for BMI > 25.0 kg/m2: DVT: 2.0, 95% CI: 1.2–3.5 (p = 0.009); PE: 1.9, 95% CI: 1.0–3.6 (p < 0.001)	Reviewed results after all lumbar spine surgeries

Abbreviations: CI, confidence interval; DVT, deep vein thrombosis; OR, odds ratio; PE, pulmonary embolism; RR, relative risk.