Optimizing Your Nutrition Status for A Successful Surgery

The prospect of surgery can seem daunting to anyone, but the good news is that you can perform simple steps before surgery to set yourself up for a better surgical outcome. One aspect of health that can have a major impact on postsurgical complications is nutrition status.

In addition, recent studies from Dr. Neil Sheth at Penn Medicine and Drs. Atul Kamath and Bridget Ellsworth at Cleveland Clinic each show a direct association between low serum albumin (an indicator of malnutrition) and increased complications after joint replacement surgery.

Malnutrition before surgery is associated with longer hospital stays and longer recovery period. According to Dr. Robert Marx, an orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery, “there is growing evidence that nutrition can enhance both the quality of healing and the time for healing.”

MEND has published multiple studies with leading orthopedic hospitals and research organizations showing that nutritional supplementation before and after Joint Replacement surgery helps preserve muscle and improve patient outcomes.

Dr. Ralph Venuto, also an orthopedic surgeon, finds that “well nourished patients recover better and in less time.”

In fact, clinical protocols have been written to help healthcare providers assess, recognize, treat, and prevent malnutrition in surgical patients. These protocols are based on a set of key tenets focused on minimizing the risk of post surgical complications related to malnutrition.

Some of the tenets of these guidelines include:

• Avoiding long periods of fasting before surgery
• Starting oral feeding as soon as possible after surgery
• Starting nutrition therapy early (as soon as nutrition risk becomes apparent).

Many of these tenets also serve to encourage the body to get back to doing what it is meant to do: chew, swallow, and digest solid foods.

While each patient’s physician is best equipped to provide guidance on unique nourishment needs, anyone undergoing surgery should have an understanding of the nutrition component of their recovery.

Originally published at https://mend.me on November 20, 2019.