Abstract
Malnutrition is an extremely common disease among hospitalized patients, with prevalence rates as high as 50% overall, 47% among surgical patients and from 39 to 73% among patients with peripheral arterial disease. It has a major impact on morbidity and mortality among these patients. Malnutrition is very relevant to these patients’ clinical outcomes and is associated with a higher incidence of infections, slower wound healing, lower rates of mobility, longer hospital stays and greater mortality. However, diagnosing malnutrition or nutritional risk in these patients has proven to be a challenge. To date, subjective global nutritional assessment remains the gold standard screening method for use with hospitalized surgical patients because of its practicality and accuracy. The objective of this study is to review methods used for assessment of nutritional status and for nutritional screening of hospitalized patients and determine the importance of these assessments to the clinical outcomes of patients with arteriopathies.
Keywords:
peripheral arterial disease; morbidity; mortality; nutritional status; subjective global nutritional assessment; malnutrition