Nutritional assessment and comparison of nutritional indices in predicting adverse outcomes in patients undergoing...

Preoperative malnutrition has been correlated to postoperative complications in patients with advanced heart failure undergoing placement of a left ventricular assist device (LVAD). We sought to determine whether nutritional risk scores could identify a subset of patients with an LVAD who were at high risk of adverse events.

We conducted a retrospective cohort study of all patients undergoing LVAD placement at a single center. The prognostic nutritional index (PNI), nutritional risk index (NRI), and nutrition risk in the critically ill (NUTRIC) score were calculated retrospectively from data abstracted from chart review. The primary endpoint was a composite of mortality and other adverse events associated with LVAD implantation. We used χ² or Fisher exact tests to compare these three indices against the primary outcome.

A total of 41 patients with a mean age of 57.2 ± 13.7 y and a mean body mass index of 29.3 ± 6.3 kg/m² underwent LVAD placement between 2011 and 2019. The composite outcome at 1 y occurred in 31 (76%) patients. Preoperatively, 3 patients were identified as at high nutritional risk by the PNI score and 39 by the NRI score but none by the NUTRIC score. Most patients received nutritional interventions. The nutritional risk scores did not differ significantly between patients who experienced the composite outcome and those who did not.

The NRI, NUTRIC, and PNI scores did not identify a subset of patients at high risk for the composite outcome. Further studies are needed to determine how to better assess the true nutritional risk of the LVAD population. However, until better risk stratification is available, all patients with an LVAD should be consider at high risk and given appropriate nutritional interventions.