Association between Manual Dynamometer, Nutritional Status and Postoperative Complications in Oncologic Patients

Abstract

Introduction: The manual dynamometer is a method of nutritional assessment and prognostic marker in pre-surgical oncological patients. Objectives: To assess the association between the manual dynamometer, sociodemographic and clinical profile and outcome of hospitalization on oncological patients undergoing surgery in a public hospital in the south of Brazil. Method: Longitudinal observation study made at the Hospital of the Federal University of Pelotas with cancer patients which have undertaken their first oncological procedure along the months of May to November 2013. The patients’ nutritional status were evaluated through the Body Mass Index and the Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment, the handgrip strength was measured through a manual dynamometer and the complications were identified on the patients’ medical records along the time they have been hospitalized. Results: 23 patients were assessed, being 52,2% male and 47,8% of sample with anal and cervical cancer. It was found an association between the handgrip strength and the nutritional status according Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment categories: well-nourished risk of malnutrition, severe malnutrition, and score obtained as well as the Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment was associated to the tumor location. The post-operative issues occurred on 21,7% patients, although with no statistical association to their handgrip strength. Conclusion: The manual dynamometer have association to the nutritional status based on the Patient Generated Subjective Global Assessment, decreasing according it was grown worse, however it was not associated with post-operative issues, hospitalization period and mortality in the researched sample.