Preoperative Nutritional and Anaesthetic Management of Patients Undergoing Digestive Carcinology Surgery

Introduction: Peri-operative undernutrition is one of the complications that can hamper postoperative rehabilitation and increase morbidity and mortality in digestive surgery. It is currently recommended to assess the nutritional status of patients, especially pre-operatively.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional and anaesthetic management in major digestive surgery at the Ibn Rochd Casablanca Hospital.

Methods: A two-month retrospective study of patients undergoing scheduled digestive carcinological surgery. Before and after the operation, a weighing was done, the notion of weight loss was looked for, the albumin level was measured and the body mass and nutritional risk indices were calculated. Nutritional stratification of each patient was performed.

Results: Nine patients, predominantly male and with a mean age of 46.9 years, were included in the study. The average duration of preoperative hospitalisation was 8.7 days, 28.2% of the patients were undernourished with a body mass index (BMI) of less than 18.5%, and 25% of the patients were undernourished with a weight loss of over 10%. 9.4% of patients were undernourished with an albumin level below 30g/l, the rate of postoperative complications was almost similar in patients with a weight loss of 10% or more.

Conclusion: The management of patients in scheduled carcinological surgery must respond to the question of comprehensiveness and multidisciplinarity due to the complexity of the interventions and the postoperative complications secondary to any invasive procedure.