Evaluation of five nutritional scores as predictors of postoperative outcome following pancreatic resection: A prospective, single-center study

Background and aims: Patients undergoing pancreatic resection are commonly malnourished. It is still unclear whether nutritional scores reliably predict postoperative outcomes after pancreatic resection. This study evaluated whether five commonly used preoperative nutritional screening scores predicted severe complications and length of stay. Methods: Patients scheduled for pancreatic resection (pancreatoduodenectomy, distal and total pancreatectomy) at a national referral center for pancreatic surgery from September 2022 to June 2023 were prospectively screened for malnutrition with MNA, MUST, SGA, SNAQ, and NRS2002 scores. Postoperative complications were classified using the Clavien-Dindo classification. #NCT05608538. Results: Three hundred patients were enrolled, including 168 pancreatoduodenectomies (56%), 102 distal pancreatectomies (34%), and 30 total pancreatectomies (10%). Final pathology revealed malignancy in 203 cases (67.7%). When applying the scores, the proportion of patients malnourished or at risk of malnutrition ranged from 21.7% for SGA to 79.3% for NRS2002. After adjusting for selected confounders, only an MNA <17 was associated with severe postoperative complications (OR 8.39, 95%CI [1.95–32.31], p = 0.01). MNA, SGA, and SNAQ predicted the length of stay (all p < 0.01), while MNA and SGA also correlated with a higher probability of having a greater heterogeneity in the length of stay (p = 0.04 and 0.002, respectively). Discussion: We promote using MNA to detect malnourished patients at risk of severe postoperative complications and longer hospitalization after pancreatic surgery. SGA and SNAQ may also have value in predicting patients who will be hospitalized longer. More prospective studies will be needed to corroborate these findings.