Introduction

Malnutrition consists of deficit of energy and nutrients. It can contribute to increase the number and severity of complications of the disease. Among surgical procedures, malnutrition its related with nosocomial infections and higher mortality. It has been postulated that an adequate nutritional assessment reduces the risk of developing complications.

Objective

To determine the prevalence of preoperative malnutrition and it’s effects in patients undergoing surgery for gastrointestinal pathology.

Material and methods

This is a clinical observational, descriptive and retrospective chart review of patients who underwent gastrointestinal surgery from January 2016 to December 2016. The association between risk factors and main outcome was analyzed with logistic regression analysis.

Results

Our population consisted of 138 files of patients who underwent gastrointestinal surgery. The prevalence of malnutrition was 4%. The group at risk of preoperative malnutrition had a median hospital length of stay of 5 vs 2 days in the group without risk (p = 0.014). There were non-statistical significant differences in post-surgical complications. Hypoproteinemia is the main serum biomarker related to the existence of preoperative malnutrition (OR 5.91, 95% CI 1.12-31.1, p = 0.036). It was identified that the existence of risk of preoperative malnutrition is related to prolonged hospital stay (OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.07-1.64, p = 0.008)

Conclusions

The evidence of risk of preoperative malnutrition is related to prolonged hospital stay in patients who underwent gastrointestinal surgery. Subsequent studies should focus on nutritional interventions that could shorten hospital length of stay.