Nutritional Status of Patients Admitted in a General Surgical Ward at a Tertiary Hospital of Punjab.

Nutritional assessment, as a method to identify malnourishment, has long been documented as an essential component of patient management which predicts adverse outcomes. The objective of the study was to find out the frequency of malnutrition and its association with the frequency of complications and deaths postoperatively. This study included all patients who were operated upon in a general surgical unit of Mayo Hospital, Lahore from June to August, 2013. Evaluation of 280 patients showed that 112 (40%) of the patients were malnourished, 90 (32%) were at risk of being malnourished and remaining 78 (28%) of the patients had normal nutritional status, according to the Subjective Global Assessment. Thirteen percent (13%) malnourished and 2 (3%) of the normally nourished patients died within 30 days of operation (p=0.001). Incidence of complications in malnourished patients was 23 (20.53%) as compared to normally nourished patients (5.12%, p=0.006). Malnutrition is very common in patients admitted to surgery wards of our hospitals. It adversely effects the outcome of surgical operations by increasing complications and mortality.