World journal of surgery
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World journal of surgery · Mar 2006
Preoperative nutritional risk assessment in predicting postoperative outcome in patients undergoing major surgery.
Although a variety of nutritional indices have been found to be valuable in predicting patient outcome when used alone, there is no consensus on the best method for assessing the nutritional status of hospitalized patients. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the nutritional status of a cohort of patients who underwent major elective surgery using the Nutritional Risk Index (NRI), Maastricht Index (MI), Subjective Global Assessment (SGA), and Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA) to determine the best possible nutrition screening system in surgical practice. ⋯ Our findings revealed that all nutritional assessment techniques can be safely applied to the clinical setting with no significant difference in predictive value. We therefore strongly recommend the use of any of these techniques to improve the outcome of surgical care. Meanwhile, further investigations are needed, and much effort must be given to find the best method for assessing nutritional status.