title: [Nutritional status and postoperative complications in patients with digestive cancer].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Risk of malnutrition is elevated among oncologic patients, and this increases postoperative morbidity and mortality.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To study the association between nutritional status and postoperative outcomes in a group of patients with gastrointestinal cancers.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied 129 patients with diagnosis of digestive cancer, previous to potentially curative surgery. Nutritional status was evaluated through anthropometric measures, Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), dietary intake recalls and routine biochemical parameters. Functional performance was assessed by the Karnofsky index (KI). Cancer stage was classified according to TNM4. During the postoperative period, complications, length of stay at the critical care ward and duration of hospitalization were registered. Thirty days after discharge, patients were contacted, and the appearance of new complications was listed.
  
  
  RESULTS
  According to SGA 14.7% of patients were classified as well nourished (A), 57.3% as moderately undernourished or at risk of malnutrition (B) and 27.9% as severely malnourished (C). The incidence of total complications was 25.5%. Nutritional status was not associated with cancer stage. The frequency of complications among patients classified as A, B and C were 5.5, 25.3 and 37.1% respectively (p = 0.03).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We detected a high frequency of malnutrition in this group of patients. Overall the frequency of postoperative complications was low, however malnourished patients exhibited a higher rate of surgical complications.
authors.forename: Loreto
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pañella
authors.forename: Marlene
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jara
authors.forename: Morelia
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cornejo
authors.forename: Ximena
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Lastra
authors.forename: María Gladys
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Contreras
authors.forename: Kattia
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Alfaro
authors.forename: María Pía
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: De La Maza
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000886:Anthropometry; D002097:C-Reactive Protein / Q000032:analysis; D004812:Epidemiologic Methods; D005260:Female; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D044342:Malnutrition / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D015596:Nutrition Assessment; D009752:Nutritional Status; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000401:mortality*; D057234:Preoperative Period; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D002097:C-Reactive Protein