CONUT index as a predictor of postoperative complications in patients undergoing intestinal reinstallation

Introduction: Malnutrition is a serious problem in hospitalized patients, its multiple consequences and relationship with increased morbidity and mortality are widely known, CONUT is a tool for detecting malnutrition, the Clavien-Dindo classification of complications is simple, objective and reproducible, in the evaluation of surgical results.

Objective: To evaluate the use of CONUT as a predictor of postoperative complications according to the Clavien-Dindo classification.

Methods: We conducted an observational, descriptive, retrospective study in patients undergoing intestinal reinstallation at our institution from March 1, 2019 to March 1, 2021, correlating nutritional status with postoperative complications.

Results: We studied 36 patients between 19 and 82 years old, mean albumin 3.8, lymphocytes 1.5, cholesterol 151.9, mean CONUT 2.97. The most frequent complication was Clavien-Dindo 3.1 in 10 patients, grade 2 in 9 patients. CONUT score sensitivity of 52.9% and specificity of 84.2%, positive predictive value of 75% and negative predictive value of 66.7% were found to predict postoperative complications.

Conclusions: We confirmed that the preoperative CONUT score predicted postoperative complications in patients undergoing intestinal anastomosis, we found that Clavien-Dindo is perfectly feasible and reproducible to reflect postoperative complications.