Impact of preoperative nutritional support on patients with gastric cancer surgery

BackgroundGastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer and the fourth leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. Optimizations of the nutritional and metabolic condition before major surgeries seemed to result in better operative outcome, and it is progressively believed to be a significant portion of decreasing postoperative surgical complications.Aim and objectivesThe current work aimed to assess the impact of preoperative nutritional support on operative and postoperative complications in patients with gastric cancer surgery.Patients and methodsThis was a prospective randomized study in Menoufia University Hospital, General Surgery Department. It was conducted from December 2016 to August 2021. It was accomplished on 80 cases, who were proved to have gastric cancer and planned for surgery and were malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. Participants were allocated randomly into two equal groups. Group A (40 patients) were those who underwent ordinary preoperative evaluation as regards fitness for anesthesia in addition to nutritional screening and support and group B included those who were fit for anesthesia according to the ordinary institution standards.ResultsA highly significant difference was found among the study groups as regards ICU admission, time for bowel movement, length of hospital stay, wound healing, and wound infection, P value less than 0.001. A significant difference was also found among the study groups as regards anastomotic leak and mortality, P value less than 0.05.ConclusionThe operative and postoperative complications in gastric cancer patients were significantly lesser in those who underwent nutritional screening and support among the malnourished patients.