ASSOCIATION BETWEEN FAT RESERVES AND
POSTOPERATIVE COMPLICATIONS IN CANCER PATIENTS
UNDERGOING GASTRECTOMY
Nivaldo Barroso de Pinho, Marina Seraphim Lacerda, Patrícia Fonseca dos Reis, Cristiane Aline D'Almeida, Nilian Carla
Silva Souza, Renata Brum Martucci, Viviane Dias Rodrigues.
Nutrition and Dietetics Service, Cancer Hospital I, National Institute of Câncer, RJ, Brazil
contact: [email protected]
INTRODUCTION
The high prevalence of protein-calorie malnutrition in cancer patients is frequent and multifactorial, requiring nutritional intervention, based on early
diagnosis. The poor nutritional status of these patients is associated with higher morbidity and mortality, infection, longer hospital stays, lower response
to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, increased hospital costs and more complications in the postoperative period. The Subjective Global Assessment
Produced by the Patient (SGA-PP) is a clinical technique with subjective elements and assesses nutritional status based on characteristics of the patient
history and physical examination. It is an easy, noninvasive and inexpensive to determine if the patient is malnourished or at risk of malnutrition.
OBJECTIVES
To correlate the preoperative nutritional status, muscle mass and fat reserves, by the SGA-PP, with the occurrence of postoperative complications in
patients with gastric cancer underwent gastrectomy.
METHODOLOGY
RESULTS
Among the patients studied, 56.6% were male, with 63.06 ± 12.80 years, and
43.6% considered well nourished (SGA-PP=A), 45.5% were considered
moderate malnourished or with suspected malnutrition (SGA-PP=B) and
10.9% severely malnourished (SGA-PP=B). Regarding surgery, 58.2%
underwent subtotal gastrectomy and 42.8% total gastrectomy, with an
average hospital stay of 12.6 ± 8.0 days and 30.9% of patients had some
complication, and that the wound infection (7.3%) was the most common.
Regarding physical examination, 40% of patients had depletion of muscle
mass and 41.8% of fat reserves. Moreover, were found positive correlation
between the presence of postoperative complications and the depletion of
fat reserves (p = 0.05).
CONCLUSION
The majority of hospitalized patients with gastric cancer were elderly with suspected malnutrition or malnourished (56.4%), and the presence of
depletion of fat reserves increased the risk of complications. The results confirm that the SGA-PP can be used to identify the preoperative
nutritional status, enabling early intervention and reducing the risk of postoperative complications.
Projeto Gráfico: Serviço de Edição e Informação Técnico-Científica / INCA
The study was quantitative, longitudinal, and retrospective, with research in the medical records of 55 patients with gastric cancer who underwent
gastrectomy at National Cancer Institute, RJ, Brazil, from January 2011 to October 2011. The data collected from the preoperative period were: age,
gender and classification of nutritional status according to SGA-PP, at the time of admission or within 48 hours. From postoperative period were
collected: type of surgery, length of stay and the occurrence of complications such as fistulas, bleeding and wound infection. The statistical analysis was
performed using SPSS 17.0, using the Student t test for parametric variables and chi square test for nonparametric variables, considering p values p <0.05
as statistically significant.