Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nutritional status before and after gastrectomy of gastric cancer patients in Jeonbuk Province. The subjects were 136 patients with gastrectomy of gastric cancer. We assessed the nutritional status before and after an operation by general characteristics (age, clinicopathological stage, type of operation, method of reconstruction), anthropometric characteristics (height, weight, skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass, body mass index (BMI), percent body fat, arm muscle circumference AMC, arm circumference AC) and biochemical characteristics (hemoglobin Hb, hematocrit Hct, mean corpuscular volume MCV, mean corpuscular hemoglobin MCH, total lymphocyte count TLC, serum albumin, serum transferrin). Mean ages were 60.0 yrs in males and 58.8 yrs in females. Age, clinicopathological stage, types of operation and reconstruction methods were not significantly different between males and females. Weight, skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass, BMI, percent body fat, AMC and AC significantly deteriorated by gastrectomy. There were severe weight losses in males and females after gastrectomy. Hemoglobin, Hct, MCV, MCH, TLC, albumin and transferrin significantly deteriorated by gastrectomy. After gastrectomy, subjects who were assessed as malnounrished in Hb and Hct were increased in male and those who were assessed as malnounrished in Hb were increased in females. These results suggest that a nutrition intervention, specially for energy, protein and iron, is necessary to improve the nutritional status of gastric cancer patients with gastrectomy.

• Keywords: nutritional status; gastrectomy; hemoglobin; hematocrit; albumin