Nutritional assessment and hand grip strength of candidates for surgery of the gastrointestinal tract

Abstract

AIM: To evaluate the nutritional status by subjective global assessment and power of handshake preoperatively in patients going to gastrointestinal surgeries and to compare the diagnosis obtained by subjective global assessment with traditional anthropometric methods and power of handshake. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted with patients for surgery in the gastrointestinal tract and related organs. Socioeconomic and anthropometric data, applied to subjective global assessment and checked the power of handshake, were collected. The force was obtained by the average of three measurements of the dominant and non-dominant hand and thus compared with reference values of the population by sex and age, for the classification of nutritional risk. RESULTS: The sample consisted of 40 patients, 24-83 years, and most women (52.5%) housewives (37,5%) and diagnosed with cancer (45%). According to subjective global assessment, 37.5% were classified as moderately malnourished; 15% were underweight by BMI measurements; 25% had arm circumference at risk for malnutrition (