Abstract:Objective To explore the effect of pre-operative nutritional risk screening on predicting the incidence of post-operative complications and guiding peri-operative nutritional support therapy in gastro-colorectal cancer patients. Methods A retrospective study was performed on 436 gastric cancer patients and 713 colorectal cancer patients who received radical resection in the Department of General Surgery of Xiangya Hospital in Central South University from January to December 2015. All of the included patients were divided into nutritional-risk group and non-risk group according to the Nutritional Risk Screening 2002 (NRS 2002). Serum hemoglobin (Hb), albumin (Alb) and prealbumin (PA) levels, postoperative complications and postoperative duration of hospital stay were compared between the patients with and the patients without nutritional support in both groups. Results For the gastric cancer patients, 205 out of 436 cases were at nutritional risk. Postoperative serum Hb, Alb and PA levels of the patients without nutritional support therapy were lower than those of the patients undertaking nutritional support therapy (P < 0.05). Likewise, lower incidence of postoperative complications and shorter postoperative hospital stay were observed in the gastric cancer patients undertaking nutritional support therapy (P < 0.05). Among the 713 colorectal cancer patients, 311 were at nutritional risk. Lower incidence of postoperative complications and shorter postoperative hospital stay were observed in the patients undertaking nutritional support therapy (P < 0.05). No statistically significant association was observed between pre- and post-operative serum Hb, PA or Alb level in the colorectal cancer patients (P > 0.05). Conclusions Preoperative nutritional support therapy can decrease the incidence of postoperative complications, shorten the postoperative duration of hospital stay and improve the prognosis of gastric and colorectal cancer patients with nutritional risk.