[Disease-related malnutrition and its influence on perioperative outcome]

Disease-related malnutrition is highly prevalent among surgical patients and has important deleterious effects on postoperative outcome: increased complications rate, length of hospital stay, mortality and costs. Malnutrition (equivalent with undernutrition in the surgical patients) can be present already on admission, could rapidly develop or aggravate during hospital stay. The determination of malnutrition in this high-risk group of patients in multifactorial: decreased intake (anorexia, gastrointestinal symptoms, prolonged perioperative fasting) and increased demands (hyper-catabolism due to underlying disease, surgical stress, eventual postoperative complications). The identification of patients at nutritional risk by screening on admission and whenever the patient situation changes throughout hospitalization is the first, mandatory step for developing an accurate nutritional care plan in these patients, in order to positively influence postoperative outcome.