Evaluation of perioperative nutritional status with subjective global assessment method in patients undergoing gastrointestinal cancer surgery

Abstract

Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the perioperative nutritional status of patients undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal cancer using Subjective Global Assessment and surgeon behavior on nutritional support.
Material and Methods: We recruited 100 patients undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal cancer in one university and two state teaching hospitals. Subjective Global Assessment was administered to evaluate preoperative and postoperative nutritional status. Fifty-two patients in the state hospitals (Group 1) and 48 in the university hospital were assessed. Anthropometric and biochemical measurements were performed. Changes in preoperative Subjective Global Assessment scores and scores at the time of discharge and types of nutritional support were compared. Subjective Global Assessment-B was regarded as moderate and Subjective Global Assessment-C as heavy malnutrition.
Results: Ten patients had Subjective Global Assessment-B and 29 had Subjective Global Assessment-C malnutrition in Group 1 and nine had Subjective Global Assessment-B and 31 had Subjective Global Assessment-C malnutrition in Group 2 during preoperative assessment. Respective numbers in postoperative assessment were 12 for Subjective Global Assessment-B and 30 for Subjective Global Assessment-C in Group 1 and 14 for Subjective Global Assessment-B and 26 for Subjective Global Assessment-C in Group 2. There was no difference between two groups. Nutritional methods according to Subjective Global Assessment evaluation in pre- and postoperative periods were not different between the groups.
Conclusion: This study demonstrated that the malnutrition rate is high among patients scheduled for gastrointestinal cancer surgery and the number of surgeons were inadequate to provide perioperative nutritional support. Both university and state hospitals had similar shortcomings. Subjective Global Assessment is an easy and reliable test and if utilized will be helpful to detect patients requiring nutritional support.

Cite this paper as: Erdim A, Aktan AÖ. Evaluation of perioperative nutritional status with subjective global assessment method in patients undergoing gastrointestinal cancer surgery. Turk J Surg 2017; 33: 253-257.
This study was presented at the 20th National Congress of Surgery, 13-17 April 2016, Antalya, Turkey.

Ethics committee approval was received for this study from the ethics committee of Marmara University Institute of Health Science and İstanbul provincial health directorate.

Written informed consent was obtained from patients who participated in this study.

Externally peer-reviewed.

Concept - A.E., A.Ö.A.; Design - A.E., A.Ö.A.; Supervision - A.E, A.Ö.A.; Resource - A.E., A.Ö.A.; Materials - A.E., A.Ö.A.; Data Collection and/or Processing - A.E., A.Ö.A.; Analysis and/or Interpretation - A.E., A.Ö.A.; Literature Search - A.E., A.Ö.A.; Writing Manuscript - A.E., A.Ö.A.; Critical Reviews - A.E., A.Ö.A.

No conflict of interest was declared by the authors.

The authors declared that this study has received no financial support.