Monitoring the effect of perioperative nutritional care on body composition and functional status in patients with carcinoma of gastrointestinal and hepatobiliary system and pancreas
Article Category: Research Article
Published Online: Jul 13, 2023
Page range: 371 - 379
Received: Mar 31, 2023
Accepted: May 17, 2023
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/raon-2023-0028
Keywords
© 2023 Andrej Gyergyek et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Background
The significance of nutritional care in the management of cancer, particularly in the surgical treatment of abdominal cancer, is increasingly acknowledged. Body composition analysis, such as the Bioelectric impedance assay (BIA), and functional tests,
Patients and methods
47 patients were included, 27 received preoperative and postoperative nutritional counselling and oral nutritional supplements (Group 1), while 20, due to surgical or organisational reasons, received nutritional care only postoperatively (Group 2). The effect of nutritional therapy was measured with bioimpedance body composition and handgrip measurements.
Results
Group 2 had a higher average Nutritional Risk Screening (NRS) 2002 score upon enrolment (3 vs. 2 points); however, there was no difference when malnutrition was assessed using Global Leadership in Malnutrition (GLIM) criteria. There was a relative increase in lean body mass and fat-free mass index (FFMI) 7 days after surgery in group 1 (+4,2% vs. −2,1% in group 2). There was no difference in handgrip strength.
Conclusions
Our results indicate that combined preoperative and postoperative nutritional care is superior to only postoperative nutritional care. It seems to prevent statistically significant lean mass loss 7 days after surgery but not after 14 days or 4 weeks.