Abstract

Author(s): Varila, Maria Alejandra1; Restrepo, Milena Andrea2; Pinzón Espitia, Olga Lucia2,3; Valoyes Bejarano, Elizabeth3

Introduction: In cancer patients there is a marked metabolic alteration, low food intake, altered nutrient absorption, energy requirement and emotional stress, which trigger in weight loss and malnutrition; to prevent its occurrence or progress is essential to assess the nutritional status.

Objective: To make a clinical characterization of patients with gastrointestinal neoplasms hospitalized at the Hospital Universitario Mayor Méderi during the period July 2014 - July 2016, by determining the nutritional status and identification of the nutritional support with the highest prevalence.

Methods: Cross-sectional, retrospective study between July 2014 and July 2016. We reviewed 399 patients clinical histories with nutritional assessment, a simple and multiple correspondence analysis for the categorical variables. 384 patients were taken for the multivariate analysis.

Results: Of the patients who presented weight loss, 47% had severe loss. The most frequent tumors were stomach (32.1%), colon (24.5%) and rectum (7.3%). The malnutrition diagnosis and the oral nutritional supplement were the most frequent. Moderate and severe caloric protein malnutrition is associated with malignant tumors of the rectum, esophagus, and stomach. Enteral support was associated with malignancy of the esophagus and stomach. Oral support with supplementation is related to the presence of malnutrition.

Discussion: The incidence of malnutrition in cancer patients may be between 40% and 80%, depending on the type of tumor, in patients with solid gastrointestinal tumors there is a higher prevalence of weight loss, the present study showed that 60% of the population was malnourished. On the other hand, obesity has been associated with factors that increase cancer risk and mortality, this study showed a relationship between overweight and obesity with liver, gallbladder, colon and rectal cancer. The nutritional intervention in patients with cancer focuses on a high energy intake, which is achieved through different specialized nutritional supports, it is the functionality of the gastrointestinal tract one factors that determine nutritional support.

Conclusions: 52% of patients with gastrointestinal neoplasms are valued by the nutrition service. Malnutrition was the most frequent nutritional diagnosis and the support one with the highest prevalence was the oral supplement. Nutritional diagnoses overweight and obesity are associated with tumors of the liver and vesicle.