A study on role of preoperative nutritional status on post operative outcome in general surgical patients

Abstract

Pre-operative nutritional status in patients scheduled for elective or emergency surgery by measuring the MUST score and serum albumin, has influence on the post-operative outcome and recovery. Aims: To find the predictability of MUST and Serum albumin on hospital stay, post op complication like seroma, SSI, wound dehiscence and mortality Settings and Design: This is a prospective and observational study conducted in Narayana medical college and hospital between January 2017 and October 2018. Methods and Material: 100 patients were included. Pre operatively assessed for their nutritional status using MUST and serum albumin. They are categorised into low, moderate and high-risk categories in both MUST and Sr. albumin Statistical analysis used: Chi-square test, student's t-test, Pearson's correlation Results: Mean age group of presentation was 45.72 years. 69% were male 31% were female. Elective surgeries were 80% and emergency surgeries were 20%. Seroma developed in 33.3% of medium risk, 9.8% in low risk group. SSI developed in 23.5% of high-risk group, 5.6% in low risk group. Wound dehiscence developed in 11.7% of high-risk, 2.8% in low risk group. The mean post-operative hospital stay was 8.24 days in high risk group, 7.67 in medium risk and 7.8 in low risk group according to MUST score. Mean Post-operative hospital stay was 11.5 days in high risk 9.46 days in medium risk 7.18 days in low risk group as per serum albumin categorization. Conclusions: MUST was reliable in predicting post-op complications and serum albumin was reliable in predicting post-op hospital stay.