Geriatric nutritional risk index serves as risk factor of surgical site infection after pancreatoduodenectomy: a validation cohort Ageo study.

Background: Surgical site infections (SSIs), which are associated with preoperative malnutrition, are a well-known potential complication of surgery that leads to increased medical costs and longer hospitalizations. Thus, surgeons need to accurately identify patients at high-risk for SSIs. Considering that the Geriatric Nutritional Risk Index (GNRI) was designed to assess the degree of malnutrition specifically among elderly patients, previous evidence (Kawaguchi study) proved that GNRI predicted the risk of SSIs in patients following pancreatoduodenectomy (PD). In this study, we aimed to validate whether that the same index could predict the risk of SSI among patients who underwent PD in our patient cohort (Ageo study).

Methods: The current validation cohort study was retrospectively conducted on 93 patients at the Department of Surgery, Ageo Central General Hospital, Japan, from January 2015 to October 2019. All patients were subjected to nutritional screening using the GNRI and were followed up for the occurrence of postoperative complications. Additionally, risk factors for developing SSI, as well as patient's height, body mass index, and preoperative laboratory values, were recorded.

Results: Patients were divided into the SSI (N=30) and non-SSI (N=63) groups with a determined SSI incidence rate of 32.3% (30/93). The SSI group had significantly lower GNRI than the non-SSI group (P<0.001). Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis determined a cutoff GNRI value of 94 (sensitivity, 83.3%; specificity, 83.6%), similar to that in the previous study. Univariate and multivariate analyses confirmed that a GNRI of <94 was significantly associated with SSI (P<0.001).

Conclusions: The present Ageo study confirmed the consistency of results in Kawaguchi study. Thus, lower GNRI can be a universal marker for SSI risk following PD.