[Nutritional assessment of patients with esophageal cancer. "Nutritional Assessment Index (NAI)" to estimate nutritional conditions in pre-and postoperative period].

We studied on 66 patients with esophageal cancer with preoperative enteral hyperalimentation by elemental diet, comparing with 64 patients without it, and the following results were obtained; Items such as TP, Alb, etc. in surviving patients, as well as those who died within 3 months, were worse immediately before operation than those at the time of admission when neither TPN nor ED was yet in use. In 35 of 66 patients, there were significant differences between the patients with or without postoperative complications, and who were died after surgery, in arm circumference (AC), triceps skinfold (TSF), arm muscle circumference (AMC), albumin (Alb), prealbumin (PA), retinol-binding protein (RBP) and PPD skin test. From the studies of about 60 items with the computer, the index as follow were obtained. Nutritional Assessment Index (NAI) = 2.64 AC + 0.6 PA + 3.76 RBP + 0.017 PPD - 53.8 Nutritional status of the patients was divided retrospectively broadly to three groups, good (NAI greater than or equal to 60), intermediate (60 greater than NAI greater than or equal to 40), and poor (40 greater than NAI) in preoperative period. The incidence of postoperative complications and mortality rates were reflected significantly in NAI. NAI would be useful to know prospectively the probability of all kinds of postoperative complications as well as estimating the nutritional assessment.