INFLUENCE OF PRE-SURGERY NUTRITIONAL INTERVENTION ON THE HOSPITAL STAY IN PATIENTS WITH DIGESTIVE CANCER

La Plana Hospital discovers that nutritional intervention for patients with digestive cancer before surgery reduces admission time by 5%

La Plana Hospital (Valencia, Spain) has demonstrated, through a recent study, that implementing a nutrition program for patients with digestive cancer prior to surgery can reduce their hospitalization time by 5%.

Over the course of a year, the team from the hospital’s Pharmacy service compared two groups of patients: those who received nutritional counseling prior to surgery and those who did not. The findings showed that 29.5% of the patients suffered from malnutrition before the operation, and this percentage rose to 64% afterwards.

Malnutrition in these patients may be a consequence of the disease, which increases nutritional needs and decreases intake due to symptoms such as loss of appetite, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, feeling of fullness or absorption problems.

The study underscores the importance of early nutritional intervention, which has been shown to be very beneficial. Belén Montañés Pauls, director of the Hospital Pharmacy Service, noted that assessing nutritional status prior to surgery has helped identify patients at risk of malnutrition, and pre-surgical intervention has reduced the length of hospital stay by up to five days. This approach not only improves the quality of life of digestive cancer patients requiring surgery, but also improves the prognosis of the disease and the quality of care by reducing the need for prolonged hospitalization.