One of the most important factors affecting outcome and recovery from surgical trauma is preoperative nutritional status. Research in perioperative nutritional support has suffered from a lack of consensus as to the definition of malnutrition, no recognition of which nutrients are important to surgical healing, and a paucity of well-designed studies. In the past decade, there has been some activity to address this situation, recognizing the importance of nutrition as a therapy before surgery, after surgery, and possibly even during surgery.
Keywords: Arginine; Immune-modulating nutrition; Malnutrition classifications; Omega-3 fatty acids; Perioperative nutrition; Preoperative carbohydrate loading.
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