Nutritional risk factors are associated with postoperative complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the indicators of nutritional risk screening tool are associated with postoperative complications following pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD).

Methods: We investigated whether nutritional risk is associated with postoperative complications based on the medical records of 128 patients who underwent PD from 2010. The tool was composed of 6 risk factors: albumin, total lymphocyte count, body mass index, weight loss, dietary intake loss, and nutritional symptoms. The patients were divided into 2 groups: a nutritional risk group and a nonrisk group. The rates of general complications and postoperative pancreatic fistula (POPF) were investigated according to this nutritional status.

Results: There were 65 patients who did not have any risk factors. However, 63 patients had one risk factor or more. In the nonrisk group, the overall complication rate and serious complication rate were 30.8% and 15.4%, respectively. If there were one or more risk factors, the overall and serious complication rates were 59.5% and 41.3%, respectively (P = 0.001 and P = 0.001, respectively). The rate of clinically relevant POPF (grade B or C) was 9.2% in the nonrisk group. However, this rate was 23.8% in the NRS risk group (P = 0.029). In multivariate analysis, the NRS risk group was a significant factor of clinically relevant POPF (odds ratio, 9.878; 95% confidence interval, 1.527-63.914; P = 0.016).

Conclusion: There were statistically significant associations between complications and nutritional indicators. A comprehensive analysis of nutritional parameters will help predict postoperative complications.