[The role of multiparameter indices in preoperative nutritional assessment]

The consequence of malnutrition in surgical patients is an increase in post-operative complications. Detection of alteration in the nutritional state is a target in surgery theatres, using a variety of methods, notably anthropometry, analytic protein calculation, and delayed hypersensitivity cutaneous trials, which provide and objective assessment of the different body behaviors. A drawback is the large number of calculations required per patient, so that there is a limited number of patients with all the normal tests. To improve results in predicting complications in surgical patients based on nutritional parameters, the use is proposed of Multiparametric Nutritional Indices, obtained from the joint valuation of those parameters, by using multivariable statistical calculation techniques. The main indices in the literature are described. Multiparametric Indices are useful and easily calculated for the nutritional screening of surgical populations.