Perioperative nutritional state as a surgical risk in oncologic patients

Introduction: Malnutrition is an independent risk factor in oncologic surgery. Perioperative screening and aimed clinical nutrition are key elements in risk reduction. The importance of timely screening has been well published, but its method is underdeveloped, especially in Hungary. Objective: Evaluation of a malnutrition screening method to identify patients at risk in oncologic surgery. Method: Patients were enrolled from October 2016 to November 2018 in five groups (breast, liver, pancreas, thoracic and gastrointestinal surgery). All patients awaiting surgery for suspected or proven malignancy or for inflammatory bowel disease were screened preoperatively via telephone (telemedicine). Probability for malnutrition (no risk - suspicion for malnutrition - severe malnutrition) was jointly assessed by surgeon and dietitian using Nutritional Risk Score 2002 (NRS 2002). Screening results were compared to the postoperative course (including length of stay and 30-day morbidity/mortality using Clavien-Dindo classification). A total of 1556 patients were identified prospectively. Results: 95.2% of breast surgery patients (n = 314) were not at risk. Malnutrition was suspected or detected in 43% of patients awaiting liver resection (n = 79). Increased risk is present in 81.2% of pancreatic surgery cases (n = 122). Pancreas resections with curative intent were associated with lower scores than in palliative operations (p>0.05). 40.7% of the 219 patients scheduled for lung resection had increased malnutrition risk. Higher NRS 2002 resulted in increased morbidity rate (p<0.05). Surgery on the intestines was performed on 822 cases. 71.2% of them had suspected or severe malnutrition. Presence of advanced cancer and complication rate showed strong relations with increased NRS 2002 (p<0.01). Conclusion: Screening with NRS 2002 has predictive value on both tumor stage and complications. Our method is sound to identify patients at malnutrition risk in time, and thus an aimed clinical nutrition therapy can be planned.