Identifying and managing nutritional and systemic comorbidities prior to elective orthopaedic surgery can improve patient outcomes.
May warrant preoperative comorbidity screening in orthopaedic patients; leaves open need for trials confirming outcome benefits.
Most patients are evaluated by an internist for medical clearance before undergoing an elective orthopaedic procedure. Internists and anesthesiologists evaluate a patient's risk for morbidity or mortality from a procedure, whereas orthopaedic surgeons are often primarily concerned with a patient's risk for a poor outcome. Nutritional and systemic comorbidities can increase the risks for surgical site infections and poor outcomes. Knowing how to handle and identify these issues before surgery can have a substantial effect on improving the likelihood of good outcomes from elective orthopaedic procedures.
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Stephens et al. (2013) studied this question.
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