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Nearly one in five severely obese Canadians who require emergency surgery will not survive to be discharged home, new research into the latest fallout of the country’s weight problem suggests.

University of Alberta researchers who looked at obese patients undergoing common but urgent operations such as appendectomies, gallbladder surgery, abdominal surgery or hernia repair found nearly half needed to be admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU), one-third required multiple surgeries and 17 per cent died in hospital.

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The heaviest patients had the highest complication rates.

Obese people tend to have underlying health problems such as high blood pressure that increase their risks of blood clots and other post-surgery complications.