ABSTRACT
Objective To investigate the status of nutritional risk and nutritional support in general surgery patients, and to explore their association with postoperative complications and length of hospital stay.Methods From January 2014 to February 2015, 853 inpatients in general surgical wards in the Second Hospital of Hebei Medical University were enrolled.Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002) was used to estimate nutritional status of patients.The patients were divided into 2 groups based on whether they received nutritional support.The length of hospital stay in days and postoperative complications were recorded.The association of nutritional risk and nutritional support with complications and length of hospital stay were analyzed.Results In the 853 surgery patients, the prevalence of nutritional risk was 31.1％ (265/853) and that of malnutrition was 5.4％ (46/853).The incidence of postoperative complications was 14.2％ (121/853).The patients with nutritional risk had a significantly higher incidence of postoperative complications compared to those without nutritional risk [29.8％ (79/265) vs.7.1％ (42/588) , P ＜ 0.000] , and a longer hospital stay [(12.5 ±6.4) days vs.(4.2 ±3.9) days, P ＜0.001].In the 853 patients, 27.3％ (233/853) received nutrition support.In the patients with nutritional risk, those on nutritional support had a significantly lower incidence of complications compared with those not on nutritional support [16.7％ (32/192) vs.64.4％ (47/73), P＜0.05] and shorter hospital stay [(7.5±4.6) days vs.(16.3±8.5)days, P ＜ 0.05].Conclusions According to NRS 2002 result, a fairly high percentage of general surgery patients may have nutritional risk.Patients with decreased body mass, less dietary intake, and at higher age may be more likely to have nutritional risk.Nutritional risk may be associated with a higher incidence of postoperative complications and longer hospital stay.Patients at nutritional risk appear to be more likely to benefit from nutritional support.