title: The link between nutritional status and clinical outcome: can nutritional intervention modify it?
abstract: Most clinicians subjectively feel that malnutrition in surgical patients is associated with poor clinical outcome. This overview provides a chronologic review of studies relating poor nutritional status to increased surgical morbidity. Techniques for identifying surgical patients with clinically important nutritional deficits are discussed. Retrospective and/or non-randomized clinical studies evaluating the efficacy of perioperative forced feeding are reviewed. These data suggest a possible role for preoperative nutritional support of selected malnourished surgical candidates and provide the rationale for a large-scale nutrition-intervention clinical trial.
mesh_terms: D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D004750:Enteral Nutrition; D006801:Humans; D009748:Nutrition Disorders / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D009752:Nutritional Status; D010288:Parenteral Nutrition; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology / Q000628:therapy; D011379:Prognosis; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000401:mortality