Impact of malnutrition on gastrointestinal surgical patients.

Background: The accurate diagnosis of malnutrition is imperative if we are to impact outcomes in the malnourished. The American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) and Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND), in an attempt to address this issue, have provided evidence-based criteria to diagnose malnutrition. The purpose of this study was to validate the ASPEN/AND criteria in a cohort of patients from a single high-volume surgical oncology unit.