Abstract

RODRIGUEZ FERNANDEZ, Zenén. Particularities of the nutritional assessment of the surgical patient. Rev Cubana Cir [online]. 2017, vol.56, n.2, pp.59-70. ISSN 0034-7493.

Malnutrition is highly prevalent in surgical patients; it worsens their prognosis and is associated to higher rates of complications, morbidity and mortality, and to longer stays at hospital and higher costs for the health system. Despite all the implications related to the food deficiency condition, malnutrition is mostly undiagnosed and untreated in a timely and adequate way. This article was aimed at describing the consequences of nutritional deficiency in surgical disease and in the metabolic response to operative trauma. Emphasis was made on the relationship between the nutritional and the metabolic condition, and the outcome of the surgical patient, as well as the impact of specialized nutritional intervention on complications and mortality, its influence over the cancer relapse and how the nutritional advice should be part of the therapeutic arsenal of the surgeon. For these reasons, the compelling recommendation is the inclusion of nutritional education in the undergraduate and graduate medical career curricula.

Keywords : nutrition; malnutrition; subjective nutritional assessment; objective nutritional assessment; anthropometric measures; metabolism; surgery.

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