My husband had back surgery two months ago. He is quite overweight but he seemed to do fine. His back pain is better but he developed a nerve palsy after the surgery. What could be causing this new problem?
Very obese patients having spinal surgery are at risk for positional neuropathy or nerve palsy. It sounds like your husband may have this problem. This means there was too much pressure on the nerve for too long in one position.
The weight of the obese individual pulling or pressing on a nerve can cut off blood supply to the nerve and/or compress it causing damage. Spine surgery is often done with the patient in the prone (face down) position.
The force of the body weight at the armpit or groin can lead to this type of positional neuropathy. The problem is most likely to occur in the extremely obese patient. Special care must be taken to limit the amount of time in one position. Support and padding for the arms and legs is also important.
Some surgeons insists that overweight patients lose weight before an operation. Weight loss can help prevent these (and other) kinds of problems.
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