Prognostic factors for malnutrition in patients with colorectal cancer

Abstract

Introduction: patients undergoing major abdominal surgery, including colorectal surgery, particularly if they are oncological patients, are at risk of malnutrition with a worse postoperative evolution and an increase in complications. Objectives: to assess the prevalence of malnutrition in patients undergoing colon and rectal surgery in our hospital, and to identify the different risk factors for malnutrition. Methods: a retrospective cohort study including all patients operated on for colorectal cancer in our environment. Results: a total of 382 patients with a mean age of 69.93 years were included in the study. Considering different risk factors for malnutrition, we obtained that 50.6 % of the patients had some of the risk indicators for malnutrition altered at the time of admission. The variables that proved to be independent factors related to malnutrition were age, DM, baseline malnutrition, and heart disease. Preoperative malnutrition turned out to be the greatest risk factor for presenting moderate/severe malnutrition in the postoperative period with an OR of 3.83 (2.1-6.9; p < 0.001), and was also associated with a higher incidence of postoperative complications and longer hospital stays. We obtained that the percentage of postoperative complications was significantly higher in the group of patients diagnosed with peroperative malnutrition (36.3 % vs 22.0 %, p = 0.004). Conclusions: the percentage of malnutrition in patients with colorectal cancer is high, an aspect that is underestimated in most surgical services. In our study, malnutrition leads to worse outcomes with an increase in complications.