Multimodal prerehabilitation for elderly patients with sarcopenia in colorectal surgery.

Sarcopenia, which is characterized by progressive and generalized loss of skeletal muscle mass and strength, has been well described to be associated with numerous poor postoperative outcomes, such as increased perioperative mortality, postoperative sepsis, prolonged length of stay, increased cost of care, decreased functional outcome, and poorer oncological outcomes in cancer surgery. Multimodal prehabilitation, as a concept that involves boosting and optimizing the preoperative condition of a patient prior to the upcoming stressors of a surgical procedure, has the purported benefits of reversing the effects of sarcopenia, shortening hospitalization, improving the rate of return to bowel activity, reducing the costs of hospitalization, and improving quality of life. This review aims to present the current literature surrounding the concept of sarcopenia, its implications pertaining to colorectal cancer and surgery, a summary of studied multimodal prehabilitation interventions, and potential future advances in the management of sarcopenia.

Diagnosis of overweight or obese malnutrition spells DOOM for hip fracture patients: A prospective audit.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Crude diagnostic parameters such as BMI limit recognition of malnutrition in overweight and obese patients. This study applied a robust malnutrition diagnostic measure to investigate whether malnutrition impacts clinical outcomes in overweight or obese hip fracture inpatients. METHODS: A prospective, consecutive 12-month audit of inpatients admitted to a dedicated hip fracture unit with a BMI of ≥25 for surgical intervention. Univariate and logistic regression analyses were performed to investigate the relationship of demographics (age, gender), comparative measures (type of fracture, Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) on admission, time to surgery, type of surgery and anaesthesia, nutrition status) and outcome measures (delirium, time to mobilise post-operatively, length of stay, 12-month mortality). Malnutrition was defined using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision - Australian Modification protein-energy malnutrition criteria. RESULTS: 127 overweight or obese hip fracture patients for surgical intervention were included in analyses. Patients were predominantly older females (median 81.0, range 48-97 years; 66.9%). Malnutrition prevalence was not infrequent (18.3%) despite the median BMI of 28.3 (range 25.0-63.9). Mortality at 12-months (17.3%) was lower than routinely reported across broader hip fracture populations. Logistic regression modelling demonstrated that malnutrition increased the likelihood of 12-month mortality (OR: 4.47, 95% CI 1.27-15.77; p = 0.020), post-operative delirium (OR: 3.64, 95% CI 1.00 to 13.33; p = 0.051), and delayed post-operative mobility (OR: 3.29, 95% CI 1.05 to 10.31; p = 0.041), in overweight or obese hip fracture patients. Length of stay demonstrated poor association with all predictor measures. CONCLUSION: Hip fracture patients who are both overweight or obese, and malnourished, have significantly and substantially worse clinical outcomes than their well-nourished, albeit overweight or obese, counterparts. Comprehensive nutrition assessment measures should be applied to all hip fracture inpatients to ensure appropriate clinical nutrition care is appropriately directed.