High incidence of malnutrition in elective vascular surgery patients: An observational auditing study

Abstract

Abstract Background:Malnutrition has been shown to have an adverse effect on the clinical outcome of surgical patients. A >10% body weight loss in the previous 6 months is a significant preoperative predictor of worse post-operative outcome. There are limited data on malnutrition in vascular surgery patients. The current study was designed to investigate the prevalence of malnutrition in elective vascular surgery patients. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective, observational, auditing study carried out in department of vascular surgery of a tertiary, university and teaching hospital. All patients scheduled to undergo vascular surgery in a 4-month period were screened for malnutrition using the Nutritional Risk Score 2002. Nutritional status was assessed by body weight, body mass index, serum albumin and physical examination by a member of the hospitals’ nutrition team. The body weight was determined daily until 30 days post-operatively. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS Statistics, Release Version 20.0.0. Results: On admission, 14 of 23 patients (61%) were at risk of malnutrition (Nutritional Risk Score 2002 ≥ 3). Assessment revealed no false-positive results. The mean post-operative body weight declined until Day 9. Afterwards, it rose with a mean weight gain of 1.32 kg. Conclusions: Malnutrition remains a largely unrecognized problem in vascular surgery patients. Given its detrimental effect, screening for malnutrition should be implemented in the pre-operative workup and therapeutic flow charts should be made available. Clear guidelines should also been made available for the bedside clinician.