Dr. Maheshwari is currently in her 4th-year of training as an orthopaedic surgery resident, and she has been focusing her research endeavors on the obesity and lower extremity trauma. Her project is titled, “The Effect of Obesity on Outcomes Among Trauma Patients with Lower Extremity Orthopaedic Injuries.”

For this project, Dr. Maheshwari has been awarded one of the 2007 OREF/Depuy Resident Educational Grants and is one of the recipients of the 2007 Orthopaedic Trauma Association Resident Grants. Her project will be presented at the North Pacific Orthopaedic Society 82nd Annual Meeting, and is to be acknowledged as one of the Frank B. Smith Memorial Award Papers. She has also been selected to present her work at the Ruth Jackson Orthopaedic Society 8th Biennial Meeting as well.

The detrimental effects of obesity are becoming more evident and have evolved as a national epidemic with an estimated 66 percent of United States adults being either overweight or obese. The public is slowly recognizing the increased risk of a variety of medical conditions and their associated co-morbidities, however, what has not been addressed as critically are the implications of the obese population when they become surgical patients. Furthermore, there has been limited review as to the overall health outcome of obese orthopaedic trauma patients. The purpose of this study is to determine if obese patients sustaining traumatic lower extremity injuries have more severe injury patterns, longer hospital stays, adverse outcomes, and overall increased morbidity as compared to the non-obese patient with similar injuries.