Association Between Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index and Prolonged Length of Stay After Elective Hepatectomy in the Elderly Patients

ABSTRACT

BACKGROUND: Malnutrition is common in elderly patients with cancer and is associated with many adverse clinical outcomes, including longer length of hospital stay (LOS), muscle loss, and various postsurgical complications. In particular, elderly patients with hepatocellular carcinoma have a high risk for malnutrition, which is associated with mortality and reduced quality of life. Therefore, we evaluated the association between nutritional status and the LOS after hepatectomy for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma in elderly patients. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted on 66 patients aged ≥65 years admitted consecutively from January 2010 to December 2014 for elective surgery to treat hepatocellular carcinoma. The Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) was applied for the assessment of nutritional risk in hospitalized elderly patients before surgery. RESULTS: The association between several factors that have been identified to influence outcomes and the LOS were evaluated by using multiple regression analysis. We found that only the GNRI was associated with the LOS. CONCLUSION: Our study shows that identifying nutritional risk using the GNRI before elective surgery is associated with increased risk of prolonged LOS. Therefore, prospective research based on GNRI can serve as a valuable resource for evaluating nutritional status of elderly patients under various clinical circumstances. Moreover, this particular research allows us to establish new ways of reducing the length of hospital stay for patients who underwent hepatic resection.