Thickness of the adductor pollicis muscle in nutritional assessment of surgical patients.

Objective: To evaluate the correlation between thickness of the muscle adductor pollicis and anthropometric measurements, body mass index and Subjective Global Assessment in the nutritional assessment of surgical patients.

Methods: The study population comprised patients admitted to the general and reconstructive surgery unit of a university hospital in the city of Vitória (ES), Brazil. The inclusion criteria were patients evaluated in the first 48 hours of admission, aged ≥20 years, hemodynamically stable, with no edema or ascites.