Preoperative nutritional status and prognostic nutritional index in patients with benign disease undergoing abdominal operations–Part I.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the first part of this study was to detect the incidence of preoperative malnutrition of clinical importance in patients with benign disease. METHODS: The preoperative nutritional status of 52 consecutive adult patients undergoing abdominal operations for benign conditions was studied prospectively by objective and subjective nutritional criteria. The postoperative outcome was monitored until discharge or death. The preoperative nutritional status was correlated with the postoperative outcome. RESULTS: Protein energy malnutrition was identified in 20 (38%) of the 52 patients. Of these 20 malnourished patients, 15 (75%) developed complications after surgery, compared with 7 (22%) of the 32 well-nourished patients (p < 0.01). The most common abnormal values were serum transferrin concentration (n = 8), subscapula skinfold (n = 11), serum urea:serum creatinine ratio (n = 17), loss of appetite for more than 5 days (n = 24), and preoperative stay in hospital of longer than 5 days (n = 19). CONCLUSION: These results indicate that a combination of objective and subjective criteria may be important in the identification of clinical malnutrition.