It is alleged that obesity is a risk factor in the occurrence of thrombophlebitis. It is the purpose of this investigation to study that inter-relationship.One hundred consecutive patients (21 male, 79 female) with an average age of 34 years were the subjects for this study. All patients were candidates for surgical intervention (gastric bypass procedure) because of obesity with minimum of 100 lbs over predicted weight. The mean weight was 279.2 lbs with a range of 191 - 500 lbs. The mean body

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... ass index was 48 (weight kg/ (height cm)2). The incidence of deep vein thrombophlebitis by history was 3/100. The history of documented thromboembolism was zero.The incidence of post-operative clinical deep vein thrombophlebitis was zero. The incidence of postoperative thromboembolism was 3/100 (3.0%). None of these patients had a history of deep vein thrombophlebitis. The diagnosis of thromboembolism was confirmed by ventilation-perfusion scan. The mortality rate secondary to thromboembolism was 1/100 (1.0%).Obesity is not a risk factor in the occurrence of postoperative deep vein thrombophlebitis and thromboembolism. The various prophylactic medications and therapies for this group of patients may be an inappropriate risk, an undue cost and un-necessary discomfort.