Surgeons' approach toward clinical nutrition: A survey-based study

Although many surgical patients face postoperative problems due to a poor nutritional status, there is evidence that many cases of malnutrition still go unnoticed and untreated in surgical wards. This study aims to define the current attitudes of surgeons toward nutritional screening and support.

A questionnaire with 13 questions was e-mailed to 1500 surgeons. Cross-queries were made over the responses.

The response rate was 20.9%. Most of the respondents (89.5%) implemented nutritional screening. However, only 24.6% of these surgeons screened every patient for malnutrition. The time to initiate nutritional support varied among respondents, and only 25.5% started nutritional support early enough prior to surgery. Only 9.9% of respondents implemented evidence based practices for preoperative fasting, and 21.2% preferred immunonutrition products for patients undergoing major abdominal surgery for cancer. The responses of surgeons, who participated in at least one scientific meeting on nutrition per year, were more coherent with the nutrition guidelines.

The results of this study reveal that the awareness and knowledge of clinical nutrition need improving amongst surgeons. To increase this awareness and knowledge, continuous learning throughout their career seems essential.