Evaluation of the Nutritional Status of Pre-and Post-Operative Patients in the Visceral Surgery Department

Abstract

The normal nutritional state is a metabolic situation of balance between the needs and supplies of protein for energy, vitamins, minerals, trace elements and water. The physiopathology of undernutrition can be explained by 2 mechanisms: exogenous or endogenous. In visceral surgery, undernutrition is often linked to chronic and/or oncological diseases. The objective of our work was to evaluate the nutritional status of patients in preoperative care, in the visceral surgery ward, Wing III, at the Ibn Rochd University Hospital in Casablanca, and correlate it to morbidity in postoperative care. This is a prospective observational study spread over 6 months in patients who were going to be operated on. The pre-operative nutritional status of 136 patients was assessed. Our series was marked by a 61% female predominance. The average number of patients with risk factors for undernutrition was 42%. The nutritional risk index identified 30% of patients with low nutritional risk, 56% of patients with moderate risk and 14% of patients with major risk. The nutritional risk stratification had identified 14 patients with a nutritional grade of 3. The average length of stay after surgery varied according to the type of surgery. The risk of undernutrition was high, however one parameter was still insufficient for the diagnosis of undernutrition preoperatively. A combination of different parameters would be a more reliable method.