Nutritional status and evaluation of the perioperative fasting time among patients submitted to elective and emergency surgeries at a reference hospital.

Objective: to evaluate the clinical, surgical, and nutritional profile of surgical patients admitted to a reference hospital in Recife city, Pernambuco state, Brazil.

Methods: a cross-sectional study carried out in the wards of the General Surgery Service of Hospital da Restauração Governador Paulo Guerra, from June to September 2018. We included adult and elderly patients (both genders) who were submitted to thoracoabdominal procedures and elective or emergency abdominal surgeries, and in which the assessment of nutritional status could be performed within 72 hours of hospital admission.