The 2019 ESPEN Arvid Wretlind lecture perioperative nutritional and metabolic care: Patient-tailored or organ-specific approach?

Immunonutrition and prehabilitation in pancreatic cancer surgery: A new concept in the era of ERAS® and neoadjuvant treatment

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is an aggressive disease, with a growing incidence, and a poor prognosis. Neoadjuvant treatments in PC are highly recommended in borderline resectable and recently in upfront resectable PC. PC is characterized by exocrine insufficiency and nutritional imbalance, leading to malnutrition/sarcopenia. The concept of malnutrition in PC is multifaceted, as the cancer-related alterations create an interplay with adverse effects of anticancer treatments. All these critical factors have a negative impact on the postoperative and oncological outcomes. A series of actions and programs can be implemented to improve resectable and borderline resectable PC in terms of postoperative complications, oncological outcomes and patients' quality of life. A timely nutritional evaluation and the implementation of appropriate evidence-based nutritional interventions in onco-surgical patients should be considered of importance to improve preoperative physical fitness. Unfortunately, nutritional care and its optimization are often neglected in real-world clinical practice. Currently available studies and ERAS® guidelines mostly support the use of pre- or perioperative medical nutrition, including immunonutrition, in order to decrease the rate of postoperative infections and length of hospital stay. Further data also suggest that medical nutrition should be considered proactively in PC patients, to possibly prevent severe malnutrition and its consequences on disease and treatment outcomes. This narrative review summarizes the most recent data related to the role of prehabilitation, ERAS® program, medical nutrition, and the timing of intervention on clinical outcomes of upfront resectable and borderline PC, and their potential implementation within the timeframe of neoadjuvant treatments.

Estimating Fatty Pancreas-A Preoperative Bedside Assessment by Bioelectric Impedance Analysis: Implications for Pancreatic Surgery

OBJECTIVE

The aim of the study was to evaluate whether fatty pancreas could be estimated by fat mass measurement by preoperative bioelectric impedance analysis. Preoperative computed tomography scan and pathologic evaluation were used as validation methods. Moreover, the 3 methodologies were tested for their ability in predicting postoperative pancreatic fistula.

METHODS

Seventy-five patients who underwent pancreatic resection were analyzed. Preoperative computed tomography attenuation in Hounsfield unit (CT-HU) was used to assess fatty pancreas. Bioelectric impedance analysis was performed the day before surgery and fat mass index (FMI) was calculated. Pancreatic steatosis was assessed by pathologists at the line of surgical transection. The ability of the methods in predicting postoperative pancreatic fistula was evaluated by the area under the receiver operating characteristics curves.

RESULTS

There was a strong correlation between CT-HU values and grade of pancreatic steatosis evaluated at histology ( r = -0.852, P < 0.001) and a moderate correlation between FMI and histologic pancreatic steatosis ( r = 0.612, P < 0.001) and between CT-HU value and FMI ( r = -0.659, P < 0.001) values. The area under the curve (95% confidence interval) was 0.942 (0.879-1) for histology, 0.924 (0.844-1) for CT-HU, and 0.884 (0.778-0.990) for FMI.

CONCLUSIONS

Bioelectric impedance analysis represents a valid alternative to assess pancreatic steatosis.

Preoperative standardized phase angle at bioimpedance vector analysis predicts the outbreak of antimicrobial-resistant infections after major abdominal oncologic surgery: A prospective trial

OBJECTIVES

Infectious morbidity is the most common and costly among all surgery-related complications, and infections by multidrug-resistant microorganisms (MDR) are associated with poor outcomes. Derangements of body composition is a recognized risk factor for infections. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential association between specific traits of body composition and the risk of having MDR-related infections.

METHODS

This was a prospective study with patients scheduled for major abdominal surgery for gastrointestinal cancer. Bioimpedance vector analysis (BIVA), a reliable tool for body composition assessment, was performed the day before the operation. Postoperative complications were collected focusing on resistance patterns and site of infection. Patterns of resistance were compared with BIVA parameters.

RESULTS

Data from 182 patients suffering from pancreatic (n = 76, 41.7%), rectal (n = 38, 20.9%), gastric (n = 31, 17%), or hepatic (n = 37, 20.3%) malignancy were collected. Overall complications occurred in 108 patients (59%), and in 45 patients (28%) bacterial infections were proven at culture. Of these, 15 (8%) were multidrug-sensitive (MDS), 38 MDR, and 2 extended drug-resistant (XDR) infections. The standardized phase angle measured (SPA) at BIVA was significantly lower in the MDR/XDR infections (-0.02 ± 1.20) than for no infection/MDS (0.56 ± 1.53; P = 0.029). A multivariate analysis showed that SPA was the only independent variable for MDR/XDR infections with an odds ratio of 3.057 (95% confidence interval, 1.354-6903; P = 0.007). The predictive ability of SPA revealed an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.662, with an optimal threshold of -0.3.

CONCLUSIONS

In surgical cancer patients, preoperative value of SPA lower than -0.3 is associated with the outbreak of MDR bacterial infections.

Total Psoas Area Index is Valuable to Assess Sarcopenia, Sarcopenic Overweight/Obesity and Predict Outcomes in Patients Undergoing Open Pancreatoduodenectomy

BACKGROUND AND AIM

Sarcopenia has been proven to be a risk factor after pancreatoduodenectomy (PD). We aimed to evaluate if decreased psoas muscle area and density shown in CT scan, as measures for sarcopenia, were associated with postoperative major complications and adverse outcomes in patients who underwent PD.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

We analyzed 152 consecutive patients who underwent open PD. Total psoas area and muscle attenuation were measured on CT images at the level of the third lumbar vertebra. Total psoas area index (TPAI) was calculated, the cut-off values of TPAI were estimated and validated. The relationship between radiographic characters and outcomes was analyzed.

RESULTS

The optimal cut-off values of TPAI were 4.78 cm2/m2 for males and 3.46 cm2/m2 for females. The values were validated by outcomes with significant differences in the rate of major complications, re-operation, length of stay, and total cost. The prevalence of TPAI-defined sarcopenia and sarcopenic overweight/obesity was 38.8% and 17.1% in total. In multivariate logistic regression, rate of major complications was associated with TPAI [OR=0.605, 95% CI (0.414, 0.883), P=0.009], TPAI-defined sarcopenia [OR=8.256, 95% CI (2.890, 23.583), P=0.000] and sarcopenic overweight/obesity [OR=7.462, 95% CI (2.084, 26.724), P=0.002]; meanwhile, NRS2002-defined nutritional risk and GLIM-defined malnutrition did not show relationship with major complications.

CONCLUSION

Both sarcopenia and sarcopenic overweight/obesity determined by new TPAI cut-off values were associated with a higher rate of major complications and adverse outcomes in Chinese patients undergoing open PD whereas usual nutritional assessment was not.