Nutritional Management for Patients with Head and Neck Cancer: The Second Step of an Italian Survey. The Opinion of Italian Otolaryngologists

Backgrounds: The purpose of this study was to survey the opinion of Italian otolaryngologist about nutritional management in patients with head and neck tumors. Materials and Methods: A survey of 10 questions was e-mailed to 100 Italian centers of Otolaryngology. Results: A total of 27 surveys were filled in. Nutritional supplementation in preventive phase was used by 37% respondents. The majority of respondents (88.3%) stated to use percutaneous endoscopic gastrostomy (PEG) in a reactive phase. Nutritional counseling before starting treatment was performed “rarely” by 33.3% of respondents while “always” by 29.6% of respondents; however 85.2% of respondents stated that medical nutritionist assessment should represent a standard procedure before starting an oncologic treatment. Conclusions: Current practice about nutritional management for head and neck tumors is wide heterogeneous. Early or reactive approaches remain questionable, though otolaryngologists agree on the use of PEG in a reactive phase.