Nutritional status influences trauma outcome

Polytrauma mortality rates are continuously decreasing over the last years. Due to rising prevalence of obesity, patients with overweight and obesity are rising in numbers within the polytrauma collective. The body mass index (BMI) provides information about the nutritional status. Varying results have been reported concerning the effect of BMI on polytrauma outcome. Both obesity and underweight are independent risk factors for increased polytrauma mortality. While underweight is associated with early polytrauma mortality, obesity shows higher rates of multi organ failure and sepsis and is associated with late polytrauma mortality.