Nutritional Support and the Surgical Patient

Subjective Global Assessment

Certain components of nutritional assessment have been combined into a clinical tool described as the subjective global assessment (SGA). SGA combines data from weight and dietary histories with physical examination observations to subjectively classify patients as well nourished, moderately malnourished, or severely malnourished ( Table ).^[47,48,49] Like albumin, SGA has been shown to predict postoperative nutrition-related complications. In fact, combining the two variables has been recommended to increase the predictive ability over that of either method alone.^[48] SGA is a fairly simple, inexpensive technique that can easily be taught to a variety of clinicians.^[48,50,51] This method has been validated by studies suggesting correlation of its results in terms of nutritional status ranking compared with objective methods. Further, interobserver reproducibility has been demonstrated, with approximately 80% agreement between blinded practitioners assessing the same patient.^[47,49] These characteristics make SGA an attractive tool for routine use in the nutritional assessment of surgical patients.

Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2004;61(7) © 2004  American Society of Health-System Pharmacists

Cite this: Nutritional Support and the Surgical Patient - Medscape - Apr 01, 2004.