A Comparison of Nutritional Screening Tools in the Pre diction of Post-Operative Infectious and Wound Complica tions in the Elderly Patients Undergoing Abdominal Opera tions
PINMANEE REODECHA, RN, MNS*, PANWADEE PUTWATANA, RN, DSc*, YUPAPIN SIRAPO-NGAM, DSN*, PANUWAT LERTSITHICHAI, MD, MSc**
Affiliation : * Department of Nursing, **Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
Objective : To compare four nutritional screening tools - the Short Form Mini Nutritional Assessment (MNA-SF), the Nutrition Risk Classification (NRC), the Malnutrition Screening Tool (MST), and the Nutrition Risk Score (NRS) -in the prediction of post-operative infectious and wound complications in elderly patients undergoing abdominal surgery.
Patients and
Method : During the nine-month period from April 2002 to December 2002 nutritional screening was performed on 190 patients aged 60 years or over who underwent major abdo minal surgery. Each patient was classified as either at risk or not at risk of malnutrition. This classifi cation, for each screening tool, was tested for association with the occurrence of post-operative infec tious and wound complications. Each screening tool was calculated and compared under the area of Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve. Result and
Conclusion : The NRC classification was the best prediction for the occurrence of post-operative infectious and wound complications in elderly surgical patients.
Keywords : Malnutrition, Nutrition Screening Tools, Serum Albumin, Postoperative Infectious, Wound Complications
