Prevalence of Patients at Nutritional Risk among Those who Underwent Gastrointestinal Surgery for Cancer

Lee, Hosun; Kim, Choong Bai

Abstract

BACKGROUND
Undernutrition is associated with increased morbidity and mortality, and is common encountered in patients admitted to hospital for gastrointestinal (GI) surgery. This study examined the prevalence of nutritional risk among those who had undergone GI surgery, and whether nutritional support was provided for patients at nutritional risk after surgery.
METHODS
This study prospectively studied 100 patients admitted to the Severance Hospital, Yonsei University Health System for elective GI surgery from September, 2006 to February, 2007. The NRS-2002 was used to evaluate the nutritional risk. The patients were characterized by scoring the components 'undernutrition' and 'severity of disease' into 4 categories (absent, mild, moderate or severe). The patient could have a score of 0~3 for each component (undernutrition and severity of disease), and any patient with a total score > or = 3 was considered to be at nutritional risk. Undernutrition was evaluated by 3 variables (BMI, recent weight loss, recent food intake). The primary physicians' order of nutrition support after surgery was recorded.
RESULTS
The mean age of the patients was 57.4+/-11.8 years. Sixty five cases were male and 30 were female. Of the 95 patients who underwent gastric or colon surgery, 47.4% were at nutritional risk. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups according to the site of surgery (46.8% of 62 gastric surgery patients vs. 48.5% of 33 colon surgery patients, P=0.67). Although 42.3% of patients at nutritional risk were not provided nutrition support, 58.0% of patients not at nutritional risk were provided parenteral nutrition support after surgery.
CONCLUSION
The introduction of a screening system for nutritional risk appears to be necessary for improving the nutritional status of GI surgical patient through a cost-effective nutrition therapy protocol.