Application of Nutritional Prehabilitation in Elderly Patients undergoing Abdominal Tumor Surgery: a prospective cohort study

Abstract Objective To explore the effect of nutritional prehabilitation on the clinical prognosis of elderly patients undergoing abdominal tumor surgery. Methods A prospective cohort study was conducted. Participants were divided into two groups according to whether they received oral nutritional supplementation at the first outpatient visit. The nutritional prehabilitation group (n = 41) adopted nutritional prehabilitation mode, while the control group (n = 55) was treated with routine care-mode. All patients underwent laparoscopic surgery according to National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guidelines. The changes of nutritional status, complications, psychological status, hospitalization days and expenditures were compared between the two groups. Results Both of the weight of patients in two groups were decreased. The decline of body weight in prehabilitation group was less than control group (-1.87 vs. -2.55 kg, P < 0.01). The improvement of hospital anxiety scale score in the nutritional prehabilitation group was significant. (4.78 vs. 5.31, P = 0.01). The infection rate of nutritional prehabilitation group was lower than that of control group (17.07% vs. 36.36%, P = 0.04). At discharge, patients in the nutritional prehabilitation group had significantly fewer hospitalization days (14.29 vs. 17.11 d, P = 0.03). Conclusion In elderly patients undergoing abdominal tumor surgery, nutritional prehabilitation model may help maintain better physical and mental status,reducing infection rate and shorten hospitalization days.